Democrats and RINO Republicans like The Wall Street Journal have suddenly become architectural critics and historic preservation advocates over the demolition of the East Wing of the White House.
In 2020, most Democrats were fiery advocates of tearing down Confederate statues and memorials all over the country. They insisted that American heritage symbols were not worthy to stand because they got in the way of race-baiting DEI policies, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and the globalist world order. The massive list of destroyed or removed statues includes a statue of Christopher Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol, a statue of J. E. B. Stuart in Richmond, Virginia, and various statues of Junipero Serra and Kit Carson, most notably in the state of California. The year 2020 saw over 100 Confederate monuments nationwide being removed or replaced.
Ironically, the same iconoclasts who celebrated the destruction of American heritage in the form of Confederate statues are now expressing shock and outrage over the demolition of the East Wing. Here’s the rub: American heritage and the Left are not compatible.
During the George Floyd riots in Philadelphia, the anarchy was so out of control that any statue of an old white man was targeted for toppling. Indeed, the large statue of former Mayor Frank Rizzo, which stood for years near City Hall, was splattered with paint and then dressed in transgender clothing—a bra—while a noose was thrown around the statue’s neck. Although anarchists failed to topple it, then-Mayor James Kenney orchestrated the removal of the statue to storage.
Symbols of American heritage come in many forms. There’s ‘heritage’ in physical objects like statues and architecture, then there’s the philosophical side to heritage that woke Democrats attacked when they waged war on the country with gender ideology, race card-DEI supremacy, and the obliteration of the (honorable) heritage of legal immigration.
Democrats at this time came to resemble the Walter Gropius school of architecture (Bauhaus), which advocated the complete elimination of design tradition in favor of blowing everything up and starting from scratch.
Senate Democrats have weighed in with criticism as well. Chuck Schumer called the East Wing project “a vanity project,” while Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) labeled it “heartbreaking.” Other Dems like Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon) commented that Trump was “tearing down a symbol of our Republic.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton, daughter of a former First Lady who reportedly stole thousands of dollars worth of furniture from the White House at the conclusion of her husband’s presidency, wrote in a USA Today op-ed that the 47th president was taking a “wrecking ball to our heritage,” showing a “disregard for history.” In sculpting a new career for herself as a politician and ‘important’ political writer, this long-haired Hillary spawn seems to have forgotten the controversies surrounding her own family.
Critics of the East Wing demolition and Trump’s addition of a ballroom say the corporate donors of the $300 million project—like Apple, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft—will expect some sort of payback in exchange for their donations. “Paybacks” can take many forms, from special dinner invitations to Democrat conjured-up fantasies of a Google or Apple takeover of the federal government.
However, critics of the ballroom project are mostly silent when it comes to the accommodations in the former East Wing dining room that held only 140 seats, forcing the White House to install tents on the South Lawn for large state dinners.
Gahl Hodges Burt, social secretary for three years under President Ronald Reagan, said that tearing down the East Wing was an unfortunate necessity. “Putting up a tent does nothing but make people upset that they’ve come to a state dinner but they never get inside the White House,” she explained. “The only bathroom facilities for a tent are porta-potties. Setting up a kitchen out there is hugely expensive.” Burt’s remark about porta-potties hits the mark—no matter how good, they stink, have no flush, and quickly run out of toilet paper. This gives new meaning to Democrat Party grassroots!
More astute critics of the ballroom—those not subject to over-the-moon Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) hate mongering, and who offer more speculative reservations—like to say the ballroom will end up reflecting the garish designs of Trump’s overwrought hotels and casinos. These critics point to the number of proposed chandeliers in the interior design as if chandeliers had their roots in corrupt European royalty or ambitions to be a “king.”
As I told a friend, “Chandeliers are a matter of taste.” Indeed, one only has to visit any Russian Orthodox Church to see chandeliers in action, a design accouterment that Quaker-based ‘plain-folk’ may find gaudy and excessive. (As a Philadelphian, I can attest to the Quaker influence in my hometown as being nothing less than repressive. It wasn’t until 1987 that Philadelphia had its first real skyscraper due to a ‘never say die’ Quaker belief that buildings must never be too tall or ostentatious.)
In architecture, there is an ongoing war between post-modernist and classical styles. McCrery Architects, the designers of the Trump ballroom, are known for their adherence to tradition and excellence and for their design of traditional Roman Catholic churches throughout the nation. One prime project of the firm is the massive Carmelite Monastery in Wyoming. In these designs, you won’t find altars-in-the-round or empty walls devoid of religious iconography; these are Catholic churches that look like Catholic churches, not WWII bunkers or secular spaces. They are beautiful.
“The very best American architecture is classical architecture once made American,” James McCrery, the firm’s founder and principal, said in 2024 during a talk at Hillsdale College. “Americans love classical architecture because it is our nation’s formative architecture and we love our nation’s formation.”
McCrery, who started his architectural career as a modernist, said in one interview that most modernist architecture is “ungodly” because “it’s exactly not created. It’s counter to God’s creation, in every aspect and in every detail.”
Commenting on the design of the new ballroom, American Institute of Architects (AIA) president Evelyn Lee said the new space “will be a place to kiss the ring, to bend the knee, and to pay for the privilege. What the design suggests is not so much a bloated classicism or an effort to turn Washington into Mar-a-Lago North, although it is both of those things.”
Lee’s comment sums up the attitude of the pompous Left, the so-called ‘fighters for White House heritage,’ who stood by and did nothing in 2020 when woke vandals destroyed so many important American monuments and memorials.
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