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/r/fednews is going wild about what's going on with the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This is in-line with this executive order. If this really does goes forward and a significant chunk of federal funding is cut from museums and libraries nationwide, I might really just start go kick a rock somewhere. I love libraries, I love museums, and I really don't think they're that wasteful either. I've read and somewhat understand where other posters are coming from with regards to institutional-ideological-capture, but on this I am struggling to see how that weighs so much compared to the good being provided.
Literally over the weekend on a day trip, my wife and I stopped at the local town's library for a midtrip break and I was absolutely astound at the many services this small town library provided. There was weekly notary service, children activities, a display of locally important quilts, a plethora of tax-season offerings, etc. Personally, in my childhood, my school library was open on Saturday and it was common for my mum to unload us kids there for the day and let us roam the stacks as we please. As a middle schooler, the library was great for a socially anxious kid. And in adulthood, on every exploration walk I've made, if there's a library open, I'm walking in.
For any trip to any world-class city, museums are the first thing on my list. The artifacts, the stories, the experience of seeing things you've only seen in books or through the internet with your own eyes, letting those electrons hit those retinas. Washington DC would be a lot less inviting or exciting without the many museums that dot its map. Even the small libraries can be a great experience as they often document a subject I've never thought of before.
The US greatest treasures are its national parks and forests and public land. Thankfully at least that nature would survive when there are less humans, though I still fear for the actual long term consequences. Not so the libraries and museums. Can someone explains to me why this is a good thing?
I’m firmly in favor of publicly funded museums, opera, theater, art. But this stuff should be funded by states and cities, not by the federal government! There’s an extraordinary obfuscation in this kind of thing being funded federally.
All this agency dismantlement will have negative consequences in many ways. But the principle of it is fair, that this huge expansion of the federal bureaucracy occurred without the consent of the public and for no good reason other than that people involved wanted to expand their fiefdoms and preserve their sinecures.
A federation of states! Why not? Why shouldn’t it be so?
I don't really understand the middle paragraph here. IMLS was created by Congress and is codified in 20 USC Ch 72. It was created in 1996 and re-authorized in 2003, 2010, and 2018. Their funding is also appropriated annually by Congress. What does it mean for a bureaucracy to be expanded with "the consent of the public" if an expansion happening over the course of years by laws passed by the people's elected representatives does not qualify?
I believe @2rafa was referring to the expansion of the federal bureaucracy as a whole, rather than this specific bureau. But your point is still a fair one: the federal bureaucracy is the will of the people as far as I can tell. Look at FDR: he massively expanded the federal government, and he was so popular that he was elected more times than any other president in history. I hate the sprawling federal government, and it certainly exists in blatant violation of the constitution. I too would love to see it dismantled, and have the states handle those tasks. But unfortunately it seems like support for federalism is in the extreme minority in the US, so it would seem that the status quo is what the people of this country want.
Maybe we should just stop pretending that this is a federated system any more, and repeal the 10th amendment. At least that way we wouldn't have a federal government which blatantly violates the constitution any more. I would certainly prefer to go back to federalism, but as far as I can tell that ship sailed 80 years ago (much to our detriment today, as the ever-increasing federal power is why we have such bitter fights over federal elections). May as well dispense with the legal fiction and admit what we have become.
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