Politics has affected the arts since the beginning of musical understanding. Both Verdi and Mozart had run-ins with censors and politicians. Verdi's Masked Ball being a prime example. But the NEA in this country, part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society has been attacked repeatedly by republican politicians who, I guess, could not understand, nor appreciate, music, art, theater and opera enough to want to help struggling artists and arts organizations . The Met's Klinghoffer, banning travel by Paul Robeson, and the fight against reading programs for the blind are prime examples of what they would de-fund. Trump may be the worst, trying to ban all funding for the NEA over the past three years. This makes me angry!
