The Politics of Culture

Guest Opinion

By Karen Mulvahill | Sept. 6, 2025

Art often serves as an early warning sign and as the last bastion of truth. When Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, it was to draw attention to the horrific bombing of this town in northern Spain by the Germans, with the support of the Spanish government. George Orwell wrote 1984 to sound the alarm of what living under a totalitarian government was like. The Gulag Archipelago was written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to document the crimes of the Soviet government.

Art has always felt sacred to me—a place where an individual bares their soul and strives to convey something of their experience of life. Landscape artists celebrate the beauty of nature. Poets use their words to find the meaning of love, war, politics. Novelists tell stories that often teach us different ways of looking at relationships, history, life.

Authoritarians are threatened by such diversity of expression. They wrap their disapproval in a cloak of patriotism, claiming their country to be the best in the world. Dissenting opinions are forbidden. When a government begins to use its heavy hand to twist a society’s culture to reflect its own values, you know they’re in it for the long term.

Writing about the Smithsonian Museum, our current president wrote, “… everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future. We are not going to allow this to happen …”

Joseph Stalin also believed that art should celebrate the glory of life in the Soviet Union and focus on realistic scenes of everyday life that supported the goals of the state. Soviet art promoted Stalin’s cult of personality, with many paintings featuring him in idealistic scenes. Art that portrayed the state in a negative fashion was illegal. (Tens of millions died due to policies and persecutions by Stalin and his followers.)

The Executive Order recently signed by Trump and entitled—in true Orwellian fashion—"Restoring Truth in American History," states that “all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers or similar properties…focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”

In a 1935 speech, Hitler defined the constraints of art under the Third Reich. “We shall discover and encourage the artists who are able to impress upon the State of the German people the cultural stamp of the Germanic race … in their origin and in the picture which they present they are the expressions of the soul and the ideals of the community.”

Germany fostered idealistic depictions of the Aryan race and German landscape in visual and written art. All else was labeled degenerate and destroyed. Universities were to become the centers of German nationalism. (Approximately 60 million people were killed in WWII, a war started by Hitler.)

Recently, approximately $11 billion of research funding and grants to universities was canceled by Trump. He has further threatened to take away the tax-exempt status of colleges and universities. One of his chief aims is to eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Cuts to the Office of Civil Rights reduced staff that investigates students’ complaints about discrimination.

Suppressing pro-Palestinian demonstrations is another goal of the administration. And rescinding visas for foreign students. Underrepresented groups on college campuses are likely to decline as they perceive a lack of support from the institutions. Foreign student enrollment has already declined significantly.

So, is the mantra Make American Great Again really Make America White Again?

Under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, art also emphasized nationalism and promoted tradition. Glorification of the military was another common theme. The media and the education system reinforced the state’s propaganda. Art, literature, and music were tightly controlled and censured. According to Franco, “You must sacrifice every thought, every ideology for the good of the nation and for the serenity of our fatherhood.” (Hundreds of thousands were killed in the Civil War and in concentration camps.)

According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, after Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the center will be a place “where all Americans, and visitors from around the world, can enjoy the arts with respect to America’s great history and traditions.” In a post on his social media site, Trump declared, “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

Like the canary in the coal mine, a thriving arts and culture scene is indicative of a healthy democratic environment. If the canary dies…

Karen Mulvahill is a writer living in northern Michigan. Her new book, The Lost Woman, is now available.