An analyst Thursday described how President Donald Trump's "cultural coup" has backfired among artists and his growing attacks on the arts are "doomed to fail."
A wave of artists have cancelled their performances after the renamed Kennedy Center and the Trump administration has threatened to sue them for millions over resisting the current regime — yet that won't stop artists from defying his oppressive moves to try and silence them, Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton wrote.
"For more than 50 years, the Kennedy Center has served as the capital’s premier cultural center — until now," Digby Parton explained. "Donald Trump, who has no concept of the meaning of either art or culture, had his flunky board commandeer Kennedy’s memorial by renaming it 'The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center.' It’s bizarre that any living president, much less one who is still serving, would want his name on a memorial to a dead man, particularly one who is still revered by many Americans. But Trump is single minded in his desire to mark his territory no matter where his tinkle, to use a famous Nancy Pelosi term, splashes."
Considering President John F. Kennedy's notable comments on the importance of artists and the reasoning for the significant venue in the nation's capitol, Trump's endeavor to push back on the role of artists as truth tellers has left a significant ripple effect among creatives, including Stephen Colbert, and other satirists — even Paul Thomas Anderson's most recent film “One Battle After Another,” captures this.
And although Trump has hoped to force artists to fall in line, that hasn't worked.
"But all hasn’t gone according to Trump’s cultural coup," Digby Parton explained. "Many artists who have previously been honored to perform at the Kennedy Center, respectful of the former president who so poetically venerated their role in our culture and society, are now refusing to perform there. They don’t wish to sully this artistic institution and its history by participating in its seizure by a man whose ego is so large he insists on branding everything in sight, as if it’s the only way he can be sure he even exists."
Despite expected attempts to "intimidate and defund any organizations with whom they might be affiliated," artists won't cease creativity.
"But that won’t stop them. Artists, musicians, writers, film makers and performers of all kinds are rebelling, one of the most profound forms of resistance to a repressive regime," Digby Parton wrote.
"His name will be on that memorial long after Trump’s is relegated to the forgotten pile of obscure presidential failures. The artists will see to that."