[Romulus]

Conservatives could actually have some positive input into this, instead of running around and screaming that the sky is falling.

Even assuming that "conservatives" are in the driver's seat even today (a sick joke, IMO), the fact is that they won't always be. The NEA -- with its new, improved budget -- will be around nevertheless. Even the bots have to face up to the prospect that sooner or leater somebody they don't like is going to be at the center of this vastly expanded power. Being bots, they will continue to lack the capacity for self-criticism and will act as though "the liberals" are the ones to blame.

[livius]

Bots? Is that the latest term the truly enlightened have started to use?

The NEA is going to be around forever, whether you like it or not. If you elect a Dem next fall, the NEA is going to be around even more. Elect Bush again, and we might be able to control it and even shape the taste of future citizens.

One of the problems of conservatives is that we have withdrawn from the fray. The academy doesn't like us, the arts don't like us, so we've quit fighting and believe we can enlist the rest of the world in an attempt to defund these things so they don't exist.

We can't. People are used to it. What we need to do is stop turning everything over to the liberals.

The reason they are shaping our culture is that we are letting them do so, because whenever we get into power, we don't try to assert our opinions.

Bush is trying to do that, and I support him in this. You forget the fact that phrase "culture war" is not hyperbole. It's us or them, and unless we are willing to spend money and fight for "us" - then it's going to be "them."