• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should The National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) Be Abolished?

Should We Abolish The NEA?

  • Yes, replace it with nothing.

    Votes: 20 35.7%

  • Yes, privatize it.

    Votes: 7 12.5%

  • Yes, localize it and let the states handle it.

    Votes: 4 7.1%

  • No, keep it.

    Votes: 17 30.4%

  • No, but it needs strong reforms.

    Votes: 5 8.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 5.4%
  • Total voters
    56
shrubnose said:
How useful is Michelangelo's statue of David?

Would you support breaking it up and using it for road fill?
Click to expand...

Yes

John Mays Lives said:
Every great civilization is characterized by the art it produced.
Click to expand...

True, nobody wants to buy cars from a country that celebrates rape tentical demon monsters.

Cut the NEA ey? Well then you better cut the military too! How about that shyt!? That would save more money!
Click to expand...

I'm down. Cut'm both. Save even more money that way.
 
Flamethrower said:
Why not sell crack, heroin, PCP, and Weed in veding machines inside public schools?

As far as illegals go:
The NRC found that the average immigrant household receives $13,326 in federal welfare and pays $10,664.00 in federal taxes. Thus, American taxpayers shell out $2,682.00 for each immigrant household.
Staggering Cost Of Illegal Aliens In America *

Your link uses a public opinion poll on how people in Utah feel about immigrants----

Time to put your boots on and clean out the barn.
Click to expand...

That first line is idiotic. Do we sell alcohol or cigarettes in vending machine inside public schools? Of course not, so stop being silly.
 
Flamethrower said:
Why not sell crack, heroin, PCP, and Weed in veding machines inside public schools?
Click to expand...

Slippery slope much?

As far as illegals go:
The NRC found that the average immigrant household receives $13,326 in federal welfare and pays $10,664.00 in federal taxes. Thus, American taxpayers shell out $2,682.00 for each immigrant household.
Staggering Cost Of Illegal Aliens In America *
Click to expand...

1. That article has no reliable source linked. It's really nothing more than a blog post.

2. You have yet to source your claim that immigrants kill lots of people. You also have yet to counter my article, which actually had sources, which showed that immigrants actually commit less crimes than natives.

Your link uses a public opinion poll on how people in Utah feel about immigrants----
Click to expand...

Yes, that was part of the article. Not all of it. Young kiddies with a short attention-span like yours probably can't get past the first paragraph, so I understand where you got stuck.
 
TeleKat said:
Slippery slope much?



1. That article has no reliable source linked. It's really nothing more than a blog post.

2. You have yet to source your claim that immigrants kill lots of people. You also have yet to counter my article, which actually had sources, which showed that immigrants actually commit less crimes than natives.



Yes, that was part of the article. Not all of it. Young kiddies with a short attention-span like yours probably can't get past the first paragraph, so I understand where you got stuck.
Click to expand...

The Obama Holder regime dosen't like to keep tabs on their coveted illegals, but it can be figured out.

The normal incarceration rate for all in the US is 754 per 100,000 or about .08%

The were about 1.7 million illegal aliens in Texas in 2012. Between 2008 to 2012 there were 143,000 illegals arrested and jailed in Texas. So quartering that figure means 35,750 per 1,700,000 or 2.1 %

So illegal aliens, at least in Texas and probably nationwide are about 3 times more likely to commit crimes. However 100% of the adults are lawbreakers.
Texas State Senator: 100,000 Illegal Immigrant Gang Members in State

Illegal immigration into Texas increasing slowly, says Pew Research Center | Dallas Morning News
 
TeleKat said:
I've heard many arguments, from both the left and the right, that the NEA should be abolished for a variety of reasons. Among them I have heard:

-it is wasteful,

-it turns art into cultural elitism,

-it subsidizes obscene and pornographic art

-it's unconstitutional.

-it only funds "politically correct" art.

What do you think? Should the NEA be abolished? If so, what should we replace it with if at all?
Click to expand...

Nothing anywhere in the Constitution even hints at any federal duty or authority to subsidize any form of artistic work; nor does this do anything whatsoever to further any purpose that is relevant to any duties of the federal government. Per the Tenth Amendment, it is rather blatantly unconstitutional for the federal government to have its hands in anything like this.

It should be abolished, entirely and completely. If states or private organizations wish to create programs to take its place, then that's up to them, but the federal government needs to get out of it and stay out.


The various other arguments against it are not without merit, but I see these more as examples of what happens when you give the federal government power that it shouldn't have than as direct arguments against this particular usurpation.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
Then perhaps they weren't so great after all, if they couldn't produce enough value to support themselves honestly.
Click to expand...

You are applying objective standards to a practice which is subjective by nature. That doesn't work out.
 
John Mays Lives said:
You are applying objective standards to a practice which is subjective by nature. That doesn't work out.
Click to expand...
All the more reason such a practice should not be supported by taxpayer funding.
 
Blackstone said:
All the more reason such a practice should not be supported by taxpayer funding.
Click to expand...

Expound on that, please. I'm not seeing your progression from A to B on that one. How do subjectivity and objectivity play into your reasoning for not supporting cultural advancement?
 
John Mays Lives said:
Expound on that, please. I'm not seeing your progression from A to B on that one. How do subjectivity and objectivity play into your reasoning for not pporting cultural advancement?
Click to expand...

Where, in the Constitution, does it say anything about the federal government having any responsibility or authority for “supporting cultural advancement”?
 
shrubnose said:
How useful is Michelangelo's statue of David?

Would you support breaking it up and using it for road fill?
Click to expand...

How dishonest can one be? You would equate a destruction of a master work of art with cessation of federal funding of artists?
 
John Mays Lives said:
Expound on that, please. I'm not seeing your progression from A to B on that one. How do subjectivity and objectivity play into your reasoning for not supporting cultural advancement?
Click to expand...

I've not come across a single post which seeks to outlaw art. Terminating taxpayer funding of the arts through the NEA is nothing close to failure to support cultural advancement.
 
R-C said:
How dishonest can one be?
You would equate a destruction of a master work of art with cessation of federal funding of artists?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...




I sure would, and I have.

How do you know that one of the artists that some would cut off funding for isn't on the verge of creating a work of art just as great as Michelangelos's David? The answer, of course, is that you don't and you don't care care because you just want to cut funding.

People like you will never put an end to the NEA.Deal with it.
 
PirateMk1 said:
If we were running a surplus that would be one thing. We are not so, dump it. Though on general principles it ought to be dumped anyhow. Its not the governments place to fund that.
Click to expand...

Lets dump everything that has ever inspired anyone (like NASA) so we can eventually become a nation of uninspired robots.
 
OnWisconsin said:
Lets dump everything that has ever inspired anyone (like NASA) so we can eventually become a nation of uninspired robots.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...



Some people will always be glad to waste more billions on our bloated military and deny a few pennies for bread for the poor and inspiring art.
 
shrubnose said:
Some people will always be glad to waste more billions on our bloated military and deny a few pennies for bread for the poor and inspiring art.
Click to expand...

Philistinism is a cult, a cult whose tenets can fit on a bumper sticker with single-syllable words.
 
Piss_Christ_by_Serrano_Andres_(1987).jpg

>" Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by the American artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, which was sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects, without controlling content. ..."<
 
TeleKat said:
I've heard many arguments, from both the left and the right, that the NEA should be abolished for a variety of reasons. Among them I have heard:

-it is wasteful,

-it turns art into cultural elitism,

-it subsidizes obscene and pornographic art

-it's unconstitutional.

-it only funds "politically correct" art.

What do you think? Should the NEA be abolished? If so, what should we replace it with if at all?
Click to expand...

No.

Because of all the many things that won't survive in the future - art will be the only thing left behind.

Without art, a culture is nothing.
 
APACHERAT said:
View attachment 67173284

>" Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by the American artist and photographer Andres Serrano. It depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. The piece was a winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art's "Awards in the Visual Arts" competition, which was sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a United States Government agency that offers support and funding for artistic projects, without controlling content. ..."<
Click to expand...

What, you don't like the colours?
 
OnWisconsin said:
Lets dump everything that has ever inspired anyone (like NASA) so we can eventually become a nation of uninspired robots.
Click to expand...

Lets. I am game. As far as the robot quip, you underestimate your fellow countryman by quite a lot. We haven't had a lot of these agencies and quite frankly excelled just fine without them.
 
shrubnose said:
The anti-intellectuals will never control the USA, their stupidity, which they are proud of, is their biggest handicap.
Click to expand...

I love it. You're right, there's pride involved, like the lowest common denominator is an elite position. Which, come to think of it...
 
I find art offensive. Just like some people find The Nativity offensive. Since some places ban Nativity scenes we should ban all art.
 
If you really care about "the arts", fund them yourselves. The arts I care about have nothing to do with the NEA, but through my consumption they are maintained.

Besides, it is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. It is comical to suggest so.

It is also comical to suggest that paying for this agency is more important than balancing the budget. Charles Pinckney proposed the federal government fund the arts at the Constitutional convention, and he was soundly rebutted.
 
OnWisconsin said:
Lets dump everything that has ever inspired anyone (like NASA) so we can eventually become a nation of uninspired robots.
Click to expand...

Is it best to have government based on limited functions like protecting people, or one based on funding whatever people like (redistribution)?

I find the reduction of individual preference to be very uninspiring. And there is something to be said for forcibly taking as little money from people as possible.

(As for NASA, I would keep the military component and dump the fantasy component. Private industry is stepping up in that area anyway.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom