{"id":2664257,"date":"2026-09-18T14:47:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T14:52:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:52:55","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Center Is A Shrine To D.C. Decadence. Tear It Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignthe-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2664257&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article critiques the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., highlighting its role as a symbol of elite status rather than a genuine cultural hub. The author notes that,despite occasional free performances and diverse audiences,the center primarily serves the interests of affluent,predominantly white,Democrat-leaning elites who value its exclusivity and proximity to upscale neighborhoods like Georgetown. The piece criticizes efforts by Donald Trump to rename or demolish the center, framing such actions as attacks on a monument that primarily benefits the city\u2019s wealthy class. Through vivid descriptions and criticism from art critic Philip Kennicott, the article argues that the Kennedy Center&#8217;s true purpose is to maintain a status symbol for DC\u2019s political and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/book-review-proof-that-wokeness-is-projection-by-nervous-racist-white-women-who-cant-talk-to-minorities-without-elaborate-codes\/\" title=\"BOOK REVIEW: Proof That Wokeness Is Projection By Nervous, Racist White Women Who Can...t Talk To Minorities Without Elaborate Codes\">social elite<\/a>, offering little accessibility or relevance to the broader, less privileged population.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-body body-md bdr-top-black pt-30\">\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12\">\n<figure class=\"article-thumbnail mb-30 mb-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-thumbnail-caption d-flex align-items-center justify-content-md-end label-xs mt-15\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-camera me-10\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Image Credit<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=10791109\" target=\"_blank\">Tom\/Wiki Commons<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/deed.en\">cc by 3.0<\/a>       <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-share text-center article-share-simple\">\n<h5 class=\"label-sm mb-10\">Share<\/h5>\n<ul class=\"article-share-list list-unstyled m-0 p-0\">\n<li class=\"article-share-facebook m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-facebook\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Facebook<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-twitter m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=The Kennedy Center Is A Shrine To The D.C. Decadence. Tear It Down&#038;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Twitter<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-truth-social m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/share?title=The Kennedy Center Is A Shrine To The D.C. Decadence. Tear It Down&#038;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"currentColor\" style=\"width:36px;height:auto;\" viewbox=\"0 0 92 93\"><path d=\"M69.444 55.716H56.772v10.37h12.672zM64.487 37.795V27.32H38.666v38.664h13.18v-28.19zM21.05 27.321h12.653v10.471H21.051z\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/><\/svg>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Truth Social<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-link m-0\">       <button data-clipboard-text=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/\" data-tooltip-content=\"Copied!\" class=\"clip tooltip\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-link-variant\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Copy Article Link<\/span>       <\/button>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\">       <a href=\"mailto:?subject=The Kennedy Center Is A Shrine To The D.C. Decadence. Tear It Down&#038;body=%20https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-center-is-a-shrine-to-the-d-c-decadence-tear-it-down\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-email\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article via Email<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\"><span class=\"printfriendly pf-button  pf-alignleft\">                     <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); pfTrackEvent(&#039;The Kennedy Center Is A Shrine To The D.C. Decadence. Tear It Down&#039;); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &#038; Email\">                     <span id=\"printfriendly-text2\" class=\"pf-button-text\"><i class=\"mdi mdi-printer\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span>                     <\/a>                 <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the nearly 15 years I lived in Washington, D.C., I probably visited the Kennedy Center just a handful of times, but what\u2019s more important to know about the center isn\u2019t the building or who performs there. It\u2019s the center\u2019s location in the city and the people there who claim it as a status symbol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Trump, who is threatening to demolish the center, is currently in a showdown with courts and Democrats fighting him tooth and nail lest it be approved that the building bear his name as part of a planned renovation. Parties involved who are not aligned with Trump are predictably outraged that he would impose his name on another landmark, which of course is as tacky as ever, but as usual, in their seething anger they reveal the grotesque nature of whatever it is they\u2019re defending.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1056090365\" class=\"d-flex justify-content-center fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2 fdrlst__b89e9-entity-placement\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1463670073398-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott wrote this week of the center\u2019s majesty. \u201cIt offered free performances for passersby; it attracted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/suspected-fbi-leaker-could-evade-consequences\/\" title=\"Suspected FBI Leaker Could Evade Consequences\">black-tie<\/a> crowd <em>and<\/em> guys in cargo shorts; it jostled tourists and locals together \u2014 and if you spent even a moment eavesdropping, it was a proper Babel of tongues,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/style\/2026\/09\/17\/kennedy-center-is-empty-peril-its-community-is-anguish\/?utm_source=cnn_Reliable+Sources&#038;utm_medium=email\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/style\/2026\/09\/17\/kennedy-center-is-empty-peril-its-community-is-anguish\/?utm_source=cnn_Reliable+Sources&#038;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he wrote<\/a> Thursday, with the most fitting biblical reference to an unholy tower that had its construction halted by God. \u201cThe ushers were friendly, the wine was terrible and sometimes mice would scamper down the aisle as the National Symphony Orchestra was playing Mahler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sounds nice. Quick question: Does the Kennedy Center accept cancellations? What about walk-outs?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">True, the Kennedy Center could at times be an ethnic swap meet packed with hijabs and halal and tourists who, having heard about it in movies, might visit from the Midwest in their finest MAGA wear to see a show. But Kennicott is a fraud. None of that is the reason he and other affluent, mostly white, Democrat D.C. denizens revere the Kennedy Center. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What they\u2019re so devoted to are its exclusive events, the black-tie ones, where you don\u2019t see Republicans or tourists, only the usual green room guests of CNN, MS Now and the network Sunday news shows. And they love its close proximity to Georgetown, a place where anyone who isn\u2019t Democrat D.C.-rich rarely ventures to precisely because of how removed it is from the rest of the city, all of which is unaffordable by any average American income standard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s how the Kennedy Center devotees like things \u2014\u00a0exclusive. Because they hate the people who can\u2019t afford to live in Georgetown and can\u2019t attend the exclusive black-tie events. That\u2019s everyone who doesn\u2019t live in Northwest, D.C., or at least commute there for work from Alexandria, Virginia, and Potomac, Maryland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cmulticulturalism,\u201d \u201cartistry,\u201d and \u201cfree performances\u201d Democrats of D.C. profess to cherish are scraps they throw at the city\u2019s poor in exchange for maintaining their status hub, which is really just a monument to their own self-importance and a symbol of their wealth and power. They don\u2019t care if another tourist or impoverished brown kid never sets foot in Foggy Bottom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be sure, it\u2019s not a bad-looking building. I had friends with boats, and I always enjoyed riding past it on the Potomac with its Japanese-esque architecture striking the skyline. But I knew who that building was really for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it comes down, so what? D.C. Democrats have enough monuments to themselves, starting with this country\u2019s entire capital city.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">      Eddie Scarry is the D.C. columnist at The Federalist and author of &#8220;<a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0FR8XCMYC\">Traitors: The Democrat Party\u2019s Collapse into Anti-American Filth<\/a>.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-30 bdr-top-bold-black\">\n<div class=\"row g-0 align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n<div class=\"article-author-profile d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center justify-content-md-start\">\n<div class=\"article-author-details\">\n<div class=\"label-md\">Eddie Scarry<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author-twitter label-sm d-flex align-items-center mt-10\">             <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter me-5\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>             <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Visit on Twitter<\/span>            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eScarry\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text-decoration-none\">@eScarry<\/a>           <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6 d-flex justify-content-center justify-content-md-end mt-15 mt-md-0\">        <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/author\/eddiescarry\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">More Articles<\/a>     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags no-print bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/district-of-columbia\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">District of Columbia<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/kennedy-center\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Kennedy Center<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/media\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Media<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/philip-kennicott\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Philip Kennicott<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/virginia\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Virginia<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/washington-dc\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Washington DC<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kennedy Center&#8217;s true significance lies in its exclusivity, not its architecture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":2664258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Kennedy-Center.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[69463,36487,85884,85885,50057],"class_list":["post-2664257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-arts-controversy","tag-cultural-critique","tag-d-c-decadence","tag-heritage-debate","tag-kennedy-center"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Kennedy-Center.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2664261,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664257\/revisions\/2664261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2664258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}