The Situation: A Nasty Surprise from the National Symphony

The Situation on Wednesday dyspeptically criticized three esteemed Yale professors for theatrically abandoning America for colder climes.

Last night I went to a concert. 

The National Symphony playing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was the last thing in the world I expected to have a political valence, even in Trump’s Washington.

Had I looked closely at the event announcement page, however, I might—and I emphasize the “might” because I probably would not have read to the bottom to see who the sponsors were—have noticed, listed as “Performance Sponsors,” “General Michael Flynn and America’s Future.”

I didn’t look at all, the ticket having been a gift from friends. I knew the piece. I wanted to hear it. I didn’t think about it more than that.

It was only as the concert was beginning, and the public address system announced thanks to General Flynn and America’s Future (of which Flynn turns out to be chairman) that I became aware that this concert was brought to me by MAGA—and that the house wanted me to know it.

As it turns out, the concert was also sponsored, according to the website, by The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts and the symphony’s season is sponsored by The Amici di Gianandrea, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation. But none of that merited announcement orally, at least not yesterday. Only the national security adviser who pleaded guilty to a felony, then sought to withdraw his plea, and who was ultimately pardoned by the president—and an organization he runs—merited oral thanks.

I shared my shock on social media, where I was immediately criticized for my surprise. I was, it turned out, “complicit” for continuing to “support” the Kennedy Center even after the Trumpist takeover.

I honestly had not considered the matter that way. The Kennedy Center, like USAID or Voice of America, is a victim organization of this administration—the subject of a hostile takeover by the forces of The Situation.

Just as I try to support members of my community in the foreign aid business through these times, I would never dream of treating the Kennedy Center itself as part of the problem. It is just another institution whose good work—the performing arts in Washington, D.C.—is threatened by The Situation. The goal here is not to boycott it but to help it get through this period so it can continue to, well, be the home of institutions like the National Symphony and the Washington Opera. 

But that said, I have to confess that I’m thinking a little differently about it today. The reason, quite simply, is that I don’t want to go places where Gen. Flynn is going to be publicly recognized. It’s not that I want to starve the Kennedy Center of money to punish Ric Grenell, the would-be secretary of state who has had to settle for running the Kennedy Center. I really don’t. Much as I loathe what Trump is trying to do to the Kennedy Center, I see no reason to take it out on the cultural institutions that perform there, particularly those—like a major orchestra—who don’t have another obvious venue to go to. I would be uneasily content to defy my Bluesky critics and let the Kennedy Center be neutral political ground, a place where Grenell and I can both listen to the Missa Solemnis without politics interfering.

But if the National Symphony or the Kennedy Center insists on bringing politics into the room, then count me out. I don’t know whose decision it was to announce gratitude to General Flynn or under what policy, if under any policy at all, it was carried out. I don’t know if under the new leadership, the acknowledgement of donors is subject to political checks or whether it’s done based on truly neutral criteria—like who donates the most money. Frankly, I don’t care. If you’re thanking people like Gen. Flynn, sell your tickets to someone else. 

So no, I’m not going to stop going to performances at the Kennedy Center. But I am going to stop buying tickets for events where I have reason to think such a spectacle will occur again. In the future, I mean to inspect event announcements and see whether there are any sponsors who’s verbal acknowledgement would shock me. And I won’t go if there are. 

And if I ever get caught unawares again, I mean to do something else: boo loudly and walk out.

I love the Missa Solemnis. And Gen. Flynn can’t spoil it for me. But he made a pretty good run at doing so yesterday. And I don’t mean to let that happen again.

The Situation continues tomorrow.