GOVERNMENT PATRONAGE DONE RIGHT? Roger Kimball: On promising developments at the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Pursuing the first, and in consultation with doge, McDonald has reviewed a host of neh grants dating back to 2021. So far, he has terminated 1,477 awards, totaling $431,580,341. He has also canceled all Biden-era woke programs and special initiatives and ended or suspended nineteen “agenda-driven” programs. He has reduced his staff from 183 to fifty-nine full-time employees, a reduction of about 70 percent. He also eliminated remote-work options, requiring all staff to come to the office five days a week. On the second front, McDonald has striven to return the endowment to its original purpose: bringing the riches of the Western humanistic tradition to Americans across the country.”

Plus: “The larger issue concerns the persistence of the progressive, anti-American feeling that has defined elite opinion since the 1960s. To the extent that there is in American society a recoiling from what Elon Musk described as the “mind virus” of woke ideology, many of the pro-American reforms that McDonald has instituted have a good chance of outliving the moment. Only time will tell whether optimism about that apparent shift in the national consciousness is justified. Looking around, we conclude that the reorientation is real, deep-seated, and probably long-lasting. Donald Trump deserves a lot of the credit for this change. Brisk, competent lieutenants like Michael McDonald are playing a major role as well. Bully for them.”