Remarkable.
I have been fortunate. Having started a jazz festival in 2010, I began to meet and then get to know quite a few stars of the jazz stage. Their names will be kept private, not wanting to embroil them in politics. Except for one.
My friend Chuck Redd, a consummate performer sitting or standing behind either the vibraphone or a drum set, was at the beginning of a parade of stars and band leaders who said “count me out”. The President had decided to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The performing arts community was rebelling.
Chuck Redd is not only a terrific performer, he is a notable gentleman. Not a flame thrower and to my knowledge not active in politics. Beyond his talent, he is also a man of integrity.
In the aftermath of Chuck’s move, a much younger jazz artist called me asking for advice. He had received a call from a person booking performers for the Center in 2026. What he asked me was, what should he do? We had an interesting discussion; I signed off with “weigh the decision carefully as its implications are likely to last for three years.”
As I type, it is the first full week of February. The news is filled with immigration attacks, further Epstein disclosures, potential attacks on Iran, and yet another partial shutdown of the government. Lost in the rhetorical debris is the impending two-year closure. COVID shut it down for two years, and now Trump is doing the same. Our President dictates. He wants everybody to know his will is supreme.
The Kennedy Center’s forerunner began its life in 1958 when Congress acted to create a National Cultural Center. The Act was signed by President Eisenhower. Two months after President John F Kennedy was assassinated, in November of 1963, Congress renamed it the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Congress, if you will, founded what became the Kennedy Center. And now, on a bipartisan basis, it should assume control of its opening and/or closing. If the Trump edict is not overturned and it will probably not be, performing artists will once again be denied a stage. In the meantime, the President is talking about staging an Ultimate Fighting Championship on the White House Lawn.
Members of Congress will stand for reelection this year. We get to voice our pleasure or displeasure. Any Member who, by his/her actions or inactions, allows the President (Self-appointed Chairman of the Kennedy Center) to shut down the Center should look for a new job this November.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Mickey Terrone says
Hello Al. Things have spiraled out of political control for well over a year now. Most all of this is because the Mighty Trump controls his Republican vassals in both Houses of Congress. Whether it is out of their concurrence with him or fear of political and/or physical threat retribution, they simply defer to him or Speaker Johnson sends Congress home until he thinks he has enough votes to override all the Democrats and any Republicans with a backbone.
Lest we forget, in late 2024, Republicans refused to support the comprehensive immigration package that they had worked so diligently on with the Biden Administration because the Mighty Trump told them to kill it since he planned to use that issue to win the upcoming election.
This is why your old political party is now, and has been, a cult. This is why over 140 Republicans, including Andy Harris, refused to approve the Electoral College results on January 6th, 2021, even after the attack on our Nation’s Capitol.
The question I’ve had ever since Trump reared his ugly persona to run for president in 2016, was what is it about this obvious monster of a man makes and maintains him as a person worthy of such a position of national leadership and trust as POTUS. Certainly Marjorie Taylor Greene has offered some insights lately, including the suggestion that many Republicans despise and disrespect Trump. Some obviously believe in him and his MO, including Andy Harris and his extremist right fanatics.
Other than abject fear of physical harm by Trump’s thugs who seem to provide the showers of threats of violence against his few outspoken Republican doubters, getting primaried seems to be the worst fate for House and Senate cultists. Yet, if many or most Republicans actually stood up and said publicly what they apparently say privately, Trump would be overwhelmed. Republican legislators could and would take back some semblance of balance, if not control over the workings of our late, great democratic republic, the constitution of which they are all sworn to uphold and have abandoned.
So, Trump will close down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts out of his unceasing vanity and it will likely never be the same, much as the White House and its East Wing. Trump’s most often overlooked accomplices in his reign are the Republicans in both Houses, many of whom are minimally vulnerable in deep red districts. Trump is working hard in Georgia now and likely elsewhere soon, to “find those 11,000+ votes” he sought from Brad Raffensburger back before he tried to violently overthrow the election of 2020.
Why would anyone think Trump would allow himself to be voted out of his dominant current position as chief executive and de facto chief legislator? The 2026 election results, I am confident, will be dismissed by Trump with the concurrence of his Heritage Society- dominated Supreme Court and America will officially be a fascist state.
Sorry to be such a downer.
Bob Kopec says
Trump has illegally threatened to prevent those elections from taking place, as if ANYTHING he has done in the last year has been legal.
Patricia C Bradley says
Thanks for your letter. I fully agree. This should be a bi-partisan issue if there ever was one. It’s so important.
John Dean says
“Members of Congress will stand for reelection this year. We get to voice our pleasure or displeasure. Any Member who, by his/her actions or inactions, allows the President (Self-appointed Chairman of the Kennedy Center) to shut down the Center should look for a new job this November.”
CORRECT!!!!
Debra Principi says
Well written, Al. I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts. Thank you for writing.
Jim Spurlock says
Totally agree. My wife and I were frequent visitors to the Kennedy Center and saw many plays, the Symphony, and the Opera over the years. Now, we would not in good conscience set foot in the place until all vestiges of Trumpism are gone. He even put his name before JFK! What a disgrace. On a positive side, I am a jazz enthusiast and think that Al Sike’s jazz festival is really cool.