Pat Buchanan: Defund The Smithsonian

"If there are no common standards of decency, there is no moral community, and where there is no moral community, there is no country. If we cannot agree on what is beautiful, moral and decent, are we really 'one nation, under God, indivisible' anymore? [WaPo art critic] Gopnik and the Post have put critics of the gallery's sex show on notice that their protests are to be restricted to the verbal. Neither they nor Congress have a right to tell curators what to exhibit and not exhibit.

"'The use of public dollars does not give lawmakers the right to micromanage or censor public displays,' says the Post. The gauntlet has been thrown down to the new GOP majority: Keep your puritanical hands off our museums. The Smithsonian needs a haircut next year to remind these folks who's boss and that with public funding comes public responsibility." - Pat Buchanan, calling for defunding the Smithsonian over its Hide/Seek show on gay images.