Immodest Proposal

I'm with Ian David Moss: It really does seem like Jon Robin Baitz is auditioning for the post of NEA chair with this succinct, stimulating LA Times editorial. It's formidable, straight-faced, provocative without rancor, specific but not mind-blurringly wonkish. Even when it seems he's being impish, Baitz is being admirably sensible:

I would wear a suit and tie all day, every day, and entertain cultural figures in my Georgetown brownstone and raise money through small private fundraisers there, in addition to initiating an Obama-like Internet fundraising machine for the arts, made up of small donors. I would solicit donations of small works on paper from important American artists to be auctioned online at this site, with money to go to the arts-in-the-schools program.

I particularly liked this personal touch:

I would make sure that I was a frequent guest at the White House, and I would always bring presents of art for the first children, so that when they grow up, they would include art into whatever magnificent endeavor for the public good that their marvelous parents helped shepherd them into.