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Welcome to POLITICOs West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice.

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Chief of staff RON KLAIN hasnt said hes planning to leave the White House any time soon but current and former Biden administration officials are already openly speculating about his successor.

In conversations with over a dozen such officials over the past few months, one name is always at the top of the list: JEFF ZIENTS, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator. The only debate is if hes the frontrunner to be the next chief of staff or just a frontrunner.

Klains recent interview with the Washington Post only fueled speculation about his departure after he pointed out that past chiefs of staff have typically left before the two-year mark. It is a grinding job, theres no question about it, he told the Post. It takes a lot of stamina to do it. So well see how long it lasts.

As scrutiny has mounted over the Biden administrations sluggish response to Omicron, several officials including Klain, CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY, and Health and Human Services Secretary XAVIER BECERRA have taken heat for the missteps.

But Zients, who runs the Covid team and makes nearly every major decision about the direction of the pandemic response, has emerged largely unscathed. He has yet to be called to testify before Congress about the Covid response. And unlike Walensky and Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI, he has made only a handful of television appearances. He doesnt have a public Twitter account either, mirroring the approach of many in Bidens inner circle. The result: he is, effectively, invisible to much of the public even as he wields immense power over Bidens top priority.

Everything that gets to the president gets filtered through Zients, one person familiar with the matter said of the Covid response decision-making process. Asked in a Senate hearing last month who is the head coach of the Covid-19 response, Fauci pointed to Zients.

Despite the heat the administration has recently taken on Covid, even from former health policy transition advisers, Zients still enjoys a deep well of support in the West Wing.

I've worked with a lot of people in Washington over the years and Jeff really stands out as a real star, Fauci told West Wing Playbook.

A senior White House official, who spoke about internal dynamics on condition of anonymity, told us, I always joke that his brain is like an Excel spreadsheet it can store and crunch data like few others.

Other administration officials note that Zients puts in the effort to win over staff. One former staffer noted Zients had the team over to his house for dinner and drinks as a thank you one night back when it was still warm enough to be outside and safe in September or October. Several current and former White House officials said Zients will bring three boxes of bagels to the building every Wednesday from the D.C. shop Call Your Mother, which he used to co-own.

Zients appeal, at least to some, is that he is more focused on management than ideology. During the 2020 presidential transition, even then-White House adviser and Trump son-in-law JARED KUSHNER vouched for Zients to fellow Trump officials. A spokesperson for Kushner did not respond.

A Biden transition official said Zients is the king of super quick calls: Hey. Three things, boom, boom, boom. The official also said that a lot of people claim to be up at 5 a.m. but he really is and emailing by 5:15.

But that business-oriented, hyper-efficient mentality has also earned him detractors in the left-wing of the party. Fire Jeff Zients, ran a headline in The American Prospect last month. Some Trump administration officials, meanwhile, argue that the Biden Covid team has gotten a pass from the media on their stumbles.

Since joining Obamas budget office in 2009, Zients management skills and reputation for delivering results despite bureaucratic hurdles have catapulted him from one high-level role to another first at OMB, where he did a couple stints as acting director, then running the National Economic Council, and most famously helping fix healthcare.gov after its disastrous launch.

His ascension in Biden World has been swift compared to the aides who have been with the president for decades. He became a founding board member of the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017 and then tried to help sort out the Biden primary campaigns finances in the winter of 2019 to 2020, when the campaign was on the ropes. From there, Zients took the lead on Bidens transition team before being tasked with leading the critical Covid response.

The senior administration roles surprised even Zients old colleagues, who wondered how and when Zients had managed to grow so close to the president-elect, two people familiar with the matter said.

Some critics have argued the Covid team ought to be led by someone with more experience in public health, but Fauci told West Wing Playbook he thinks that criticism is misguided. I mean, weve got enough public health people that are on the team, he said. I think Jeffs the perfect person for the job. And he's doing a terrific job. I mean, I don't think youll hear even the slightest criticism from anybody who actually works with him.

But since we live in the wonderful town of Washington, D.C., somebody's always got something bad to say about somebody.

TEXT US Did we miss something about Zients or the Covid response? Send us an email or text and we will try to include your thoughts in the next days edition. Can be anonymous, on background, etc. Email us at [emailprotected] or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098 or Max at 7143455427.

Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you NATALIE QUILLIAN, Zients deputy on the White House Covid team? (Email/text us! Please?)

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From the University of Virginia's Miller Center

Which president was the first to win the White House while his party failed to win the House or Senate?

(Answer at the bottom.)

ROGAN WARS The White House waded into the escalating feud between Spotify and a number of prominent musicians over podcast host JOE ROGAN, who has expressed skepticism about the Covid-19 vaccine and has hosted other vaccine skeptics on his show.

Asked by West Wing Playbook during the White House press briefing on Tuesday about Spotifys recent decision to add warning labels to Covid-19-related podcast content, press secretary JEN PSAKI said the move is a positive step, but the White House wants every platform to continue doing more to call out mis-and-disinformation while also uplifting accurate information.

ABOUT YESTERDAYS NEWSLETTER We flubbed a bit of background in yesterdays newsletter about the New York Times lawsuit against the State Department for FOIAs related to Hunter Biden. We said Times reporter KEN VOGEL wrote about the presidents son for the Times and at POLITICO, where he was previously a reporter. Vogel actually reported for POLITICO on Ukraines behind-the-scenes influence campaign during the 2016 election, but not about Hunter.

Speaking of Vogel, a judge has been appointed for the New York Times case. The Times drew Judge PAUL OETKEN, an Obama-tapped U.S. District Court judge. Oetken is also the judge overseeing the federal probe into whether former New York Mayor RUDY GIULIANI attempted to influence U.S. government policy on the behalf of Ukrainian officials.

DOUG JONES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: After losing out to MERRICK GARLAND for the attorney general post, DOUG JONES is coming back to government to guide Bidens Supreme Court nominee through the confirmation process, NYTs KATIE ROGERS first reported. Jones, the former senator from Alabama, is an original Biden guy, having supported him for president in 1988 and 2008. Biden returned the favor when Jones ran for Senate in 2017, encouraging Jones to run and hitting the campaign trail for the then-candidate.

During Tuesdays press briefing, Psaki noted that the White House plans to have multiple people on the team that will sherpa Bidens nominee during the Senate confirmation process.

Our story on Jones new role from JOSEPH GEDEONand MYAH WARD.

FIRST DAY JITTERS CATHY RUSSELL, the former head of the presidential personnel office and a Biden loyalist, started her new job today as UNICEFs executive director, POLITICOs CARMEN PAUN told us.

I LIKE HIM, BUT Republican Sen. ROY BLUNT today threw cold water on Bidens nominee for the FDA, ROBERT CALIFF, who has been struggling with confirmation. I like him, Blunt told POLITICOs ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and DAVID LIM. But I havent made a final decision on that yet and dont intend to until the administration appears to be truly ready to push his name forward.

COTTON, THE FABRIC OF RESISTANCE: Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) vowed today to block any Justice Department nominees from moving quickly through the Senate unless the department agrees to represent or pay legal fees for several deputy U.S. Marshals who were attacked for months by the violent left-wing mob in Portland, he wrote in a tweet, referring to the protests back in 2020.

FILLING UP THE COURTS: The Senate Tuesday confirmed two district judges for the Northern District of Ohio BRIDGET BRENNAN, 60-36, and CHARLES FLEMING, 56-42.

KING MANCHIN Responding to reporters questions about Bidens proposed Build Back Better bill, Sen. JOE MANCHIN did not mince words. What Build Back Better bill? There is no I mean, I dont know what yall are talking about. Asked if he is engaged in talks on the bill, Manchin snapped: No, no, no, no. Its dead. He added later: If we're talking about the whole big package, thats gone.

A message from Blackstone:

US begins quietly flying Venezuelan migrants to Colombia under controversial border policy (CNNs Priscilla Alvarez)

US and allies close to reviving nuclear deal with Iran, officials say (NYTs David E. Sanger, Lara Jakes and Farnaz Fassihi)

Does Bidens presidency hang on the crisis with Russia? (New Yorkers Robin Wright)

FBI director CHRIS WRAY sits down with PETE WILLIAMS on NBC Nightly News at 6:30 pm ET.

Biden received the Presidents Daily Brief in the morning.

Later, he met with Sens. DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) and CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) in the Oval Office to discuss the Supreme Court opening, following the announcement of Justice STEPHEN BREYERs retirement.

With the president.

When JOHN McCARTHY, who works for top Biden aide STEVE RICCHETTI, was a teen, he wasn't exactly doing things a typical teenager would do. His mom, PATTI McCARTHY, remembers a time when she heard him making phone calls on behalf of HILLARY CLINTON's campaign.

He was probably about 15 years old, and I hear him on the phone in our computer room, and whats he saying? she told the Asbury Park Press in November 2020. Hes making calls for Hillary Clinton to people around the country.

Not your typical teenage hobby, but we will allow it.

In 1956, DWIGHT EISENHOWER won 58 percent of the popular vote and 41 states, yet Republicans failed to win the House or Senate. Eisenhower's popularity, particularly on national security issues, allowed him to win vast swaths of the electorate that couldn't be replicated by his party.

For information on Eisenhower and the rest of the presidents, visit millercenter.org.

A CALL OUT Have a better trivia question? Send us your hardest trivia question on the presidents and we may feature it on Wednesdays.

Edited by Emily Cadei

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We support our portfolio companies in their recruitment and retention of these exceptional individuals. By creating new opportunities for veterans and their families, we can fulfill our core mandate: to deliver consistent returns for our investors by building stronger businesses. Learn more.

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The Zients-geist is coming- POLITICO - Politico

COLLEYVILLE, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) held a press conference after meeting with Jewish leaders in Colleyville in the aftermath of the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel. During his remarks, Sen. Cruz said:

When that attack [at Congregation Beth Israel] was ongoing, the eyes of Texas, the eyes of the entire country, the eyes of the world were on north Texaswere on this horrific act of terror being carried out in our backyard. And I will say it is an incredible blessing that the four individuals held hostage were able to survive and come out unharmed. It was truly a blessing from God. While the hostage attack was going on, Heidi and I were lifting up the people that were in harm's way, lifting them up in prayer. At the same time, while the incident was playing forward, I was in communicationI spoke with a special agent in charge at the FBI who was leading the investigation here. I wanted to make sure that they had all the federal resources they needed, they had all the assets needed to end the hostage situation. At the time, the hostage rescue team was in the air coming from Quantico. I was informed they had between federal, state, and local, all the resources needed to mobilize and end the situation. I will say there was great heroism from law enforcement to go in to take out the terrorist and to save lives. That being said, the Jewish community is still in shock, is mourning. The following week, Friday night, I went to Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston simply to show my support for the community, that we stand together. And I have to say in therethis is something that we were all talking about upstairs. Texas is a big state. Weve seen tragedywhether tragedy from terror, tragedy from crime, tragedy from natural disaster, be it hurricane or tornado. And every time tragedy strikes the state of Texas, consistently we see Texans come together, we see Texans help each other, support each other. And thats what weve seen in this community as well.

He continued, condemning the rise of antisemitism:

When it comes to antisemitism, antisemitism is a unique and horrific evil. And it is an evil that we are seeing escalating across the country and across the world. It is an evil that goes back millenniathousands of years. The virulent hatred of the Jewish people is wrong. It is evil. It is horrific. It is dangerous. And it has been used to justify some of the most horrific atrocities this planet has ever seen. In my time in the Senate, I have been the leading defender of the State of Israel in the United States Senate for the past decade. And that is a labor of love from the heart when it comes to standing and fighting against antisemitism. That is something I've been proud to lead on.

The House of Representatives tried to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism. Nancy Pelosi introduced the resolution condemning antisemitism and sadly, the Democratic conference couldn't agree on it because of the Squad, because of the strong anti-Israel sentiment. They couldn't pass a resolution condemning antisemitism. When that happened, I thought it was important that we see a strong bipartisan condemnation of antisemitism. So I went in the Senate to Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, [who] obviously was the running mate of Hillary Clinton. And I went to Tim and said, Tim, can can we do better on the Senate side? Can we come together clearly and unequivocally and condemn antisemitism? We drafted a resolution. The resolution was the Cruz-Kaine resolution that clearly and explicitly condemns antisemitism as a unique evil, as an evil that goes back thousands of years. It condemns BDSthe Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which targets unfairly the State of Israel and is a manifestation of antisemitism. It condemns the antisemitic tropes that came from the Squad as antisemitism. And I have to say, I was proud, very proud that the United States Senate passed that resolution 100 to nothingunanimously. We brought together every Republican and every Democrat condemning antisemitism. That's the sort of unity we need standing against antisemitism.

On whats being done to safeguard synagogues and other houses of worship in the aftermath of the attack, Sen. Cruz said:

There are federal programs right now that provide funding to help with synagogues and churches and mosques, houses of worship, [to] harden their physical safety and infrastructure, [to] be able to stand against an act of terror, act of violence. A lot of the discussion upstairs was about how we could improve that program. I am working number one, to get clear accountability. One of the things I heard is that many of the synagogues who have applied to this grant program have been turned down. And they've been turned down [and] they don't have clear visibility on why they've been turned down. I and my team are going to work to try to get answers from the Biden administration, from the Department of Justice, from FEMA, as to how many houses of worship have applied for these programs, how many have been received funding, how many have been turned down, what the criteria have been, and what the results have been. Which houses of worship have been subjected to acts of violence in the aftermath? And I intend to work to significantly increase the funding that is available so that more houses of worship are able to receive grants to harden and strengthen their facilities.

On how the terrorist who attacked Congregation Beth Israel was able to come into the United States, Sen. Cruz said:

So I've joined with a number of other senators asking the attorney general, asking the head of the FBI, asking the head of Homeland Security, why he came in, what we knew about his criminal record, what we knew about his terrorist ties, what we knew about his radicalization. At this point, we haven't gotten an answer. And I will say it's frustrating that the Biden administration is extraordinarily slow in responding to congressional oversight. And so we get, we just get crickets chirping. And I'm going to continue pressing, I'm going to continue fighting. Because there's a Democratic majority in the Senate, I don't have the ability to call a hearingonly the majority can call a hearing. What I can do is question witnesses that show up at a hearing that gets called by the Democrats. So the next hearing that I have an opportunity to question them, Ill question them directly. I'm going to keep pressing for answers. But as of now, the administration has not provided answers that I think the American people deserve to knowwhat did we know? And how could we have prevented this terrorist from coming to America and committing this act of terror?

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More:
Sen. Cruz in Colleyville: 'I'm Going To Keep Pressing for Answers' in the Aftermath of the Terrorist Attack at Congregation Beth Israel - Senator Ted...

A woman tosses a Ouija Board into a bonfire outside a church in New Mexico in 2001, after the church's pastor urged parishioners to burn dozens of Harry Potter books and other types of literature and games they found offensive. Neil Jacobs/Getty Images hide caption

A woman tosses a Ouija Board into a bonfire outside a church in New Mexico in 2001, after the church's pastor urged parishioners to burn dozens of Harry Potter books and other types of literature and games they found offensive.

America's culture wars are creating a world of "magnificent heroes and sickening villains" as people fight a fierce battle in black and white, says writer and podcaster Jon Ronson.

Ronson said he watched his own friends fight in the trenches, often to their own detriment, and he wanted to know more.

So he set out to explore not just the culture wars themselves, but the humans behind the stories and how these fights began.

Riffing on a famous line of poetry by William Butler Yeats that reads, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold," Ronson has released a new BBC podcast called "Things Fell Apart".

In each episode, he goes back in time to a starting point in a particular debate from school books to abortion and the "Satanic Panic" that spread in the 1980s.

He spoke to NPR's All Things Considered about what he learned about the culture wars from studying it, and how they could end.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jon Ronson says a key takeaway from his research is that people are complicated. Jason Kempin hide caption

Jon Ronson says a key takeaway from his research is that people are complicated.

I was watching friends just, frankly, ruin their lives after getting overly engaged in a war. It wasn't so much the war itself, it was the fact that they were fighting it with such an intensity that it was ruining their reputations, ruining their marriages, and so on. So it felt very important to do something about it. But I didn't want to make a show about the culture wars that would become a part of the culture wars.

So what I did was I took the last 50 years of the culture wars, the noise, and I just honed in on these tiny, human stories. Because I thought, if you take anger out of the equation, and instead you're telling human stories, then your brain could be filled with curiosity, and with empathy, and so on.

And when I started to find these human stories, I just noticed that many of them were origin stories. Somebody makes a tiny decision that may have absolutely nothing to do with the culture wars. In one episode, there's a man called Frank Schaeffer who was a teenage boy growing up in the Alps in Switzerland, who dreamed of making Hollywood movies. He wanted a showreel to impress Hollywood producers. And that ambition led directly to abortion doctors being murdered 30 years later.

People are complicated.

Good people do stupid things and vice-versa. We're complicated with gray areas, we're a mess. And I think that's a very positive way of telling stories to remember that human beings are a complicated mess.

My base level is liking people. ... A neighbor of mine once said to me, 'You spend so much time with, you know, Nazis and white supremacists, and you're always surprised when they turned around to behave completely abhorrently towards you.' But I guess it's quite a good baseline to be curious, as opposed to, I suppose, to prejudging somebody.

This is a story about connection. It's about warring factions: the Christian right and AIDS activists in the 1980s, coming together and listening to each other. And the result was wonderful. The ripples of that interview [between televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and Steve Pieters in 1985] are just extraordinary in terms of bringing together those two factions at a time when Tammy Faye's peer group, like Jerry Falwell, were convincing Ronald Reagan to not say the word AIDS, which he didn't for four years.

Steve Pieters is maybe the most extraordinary person I've interviewed in 35 years of being a journalist. It's a miracle that he went on this TV show, and the two of them were so brilliant that they did so much good. They connected so much. You know, after the interview ended, a woman watching phoned the studio and said that her son had AIDS and she always thought that her son was going to go to hell when he died. But now she knew that her son was going to go to heaven when he died. So that was the impact in the evangelical world that this interview had ... So, it's a miracle on top of a miracle, this story.

I think there was a specific set of circumstances in the early 1970s, where the culture wars sprung up, because finally the evangelical right felt galvanized into doing something. But why they really begin here, it's hard to know. You know, they migrate all over the place, and there are certain culture wars that burn hotter in other countries than they do here. For instance, the debate over trans rights burns very, very hot in the United Kingdom. And a little less so here. So why it starts here? You know, I wish I had a great answer for that. To be honest, I don't know. All I can tell you is that pretty much every culture war that swallowed up the world began in this great nation.

Well, the Tammy Faye-Steve Pieters story is a beautiful example of that. I mean, one could argue that in the West, given how gay marriage is legal in however many countries 28-30 countries that war has pretty much been decisively won, at least in the West. And it was things like Steve Pieters going on Tammy's show, showing the human face, showing that you can be a Christian and be gay, showing that people with AIDS didn't need to be feared. Tammy was crying and saying to Steve, 'If I could put my arm around you and hug you' because this was done over satellite, this interview 'I would. And isn't it terrible that as Christians, we're scared of putting our arms around people and telling them that we care.' So wars end when people connect and listen to each other and are curious about each other, instead of instantly judgmental.

Continued here:
The history of the culture wars from abortion to school books - NPR

BUDAPEST A polarizing project by the government of Viktor Orban, Hungarys far-right prime minister, to transform the historic City Park here into a museum district has produced its first building: the House of Music, Hungary.

Designed by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, the cultural center, which opened on Jan. 23, offers exhibitions, education and concerts. An interactive permanent show guides visitors through the historical development of Western music; celebrates the contribution of Hungarian composers like Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly; and traces Hungarys folk music tradition to its Central Asian roots. One room, painted in the colors of the Hungarian flag, features video displays on the countrys political history and famous athletes, with the national anthem as a soundtrack.

Yet beyond the House of Musics glass walls, which are animated by reflections of construction elsewhere in the park, this new building is mired in controversy.

Critics have said that the governments plans to develop the 200-year-old City Park into a museum district disturbs the natural environment, deprives locals of much-needed public space and raises concerns about corruption. But those behind the project say the site has always been more than a public park, and that the undertaking is Europes largest urban development project. In a speech, Orban described the transformation as an unfinished work of art.

In 2012, Orbans government announced an ambitious plan to transform the park, in disrepair after decades of neglect, into a district of five museums. The estimated cost at the time was about $250 million, but that had ballooned to nearly five times original projections by 2017.

There had been a virtual consensus that the park needed work, but the government and park conservationists disagreed about the fate of the parks natural features.

A special legal designation allowed the project to skirt existing development rules, meaning the municipality of Budapest had little say over the governments plans. And legislation adopted by Orbans party placed the park under the purview of a newly created, state-owned company controlled by his allies. Sandor Lederer of K-Monitor, an anti-corruption watchdog, said that public records indicate the House of Music alone had cost Hungarian taxpayers as much as $100 million.

The project is a good example of how public investments work under Orban, Lederer said. There are no real needs and impact assessments done; citizens and affected parties are excluded from consultations and planning.

He added that poor planning and corruption have benefited companies widely seen as Orbans clientele, saying, Not only present, but also future generations will pay the costs of another Orban pet project.

Laszlo Baan, the government commissioner overseeing the project, declined to be interviewed, but a spokeswoman said in a statement that the government had so far spent 250 billion Hungarian Forint, about $800 million, on the project. Fujimotos office did not respond to an interview request.

In 2016, private security guards clashed with park conservationists at the future site of the House of Music. Gergely Karacsony, an opposition politician who was elected mayor of Budapest in 2019, did not attend the House of Musics Jan. 22 unveiling, which took place on the Day of Hungarian Culture, a national celebration. The building, he wrote on social media, was born not of culture, but of violence.

In a radio interview, Karacsony recently likened construction in a public park to urinating in a stoop of Holy Water: You can do it, but it ruins why we are all there.

Orban, however, has sought to frame the museum district as a legacy project, and he has used it as a cudgel in his own war against what he sees as the Wests cultural decline. Unveiling the House of Music, he attacked critics of the parks transformation as leftists who opposed beauty.

The Hungarian nation never forgets the names of those who built the country, Orban said in a speech at the ceremony, adding that detractors are not remembered, because the Hungarian nation simply casts them out of its memory.

He added that national elections in April would be a period that would end debate over the future of the park.

Since returning to power in 2010, Orban and his allies have taken over public media, as well as most of the countrys private media, to promulgate far-right conspiracy theories, attack the regimes critics and advance Orbans culture war (which has also reached academia and the arts.) Hungarys cities are currently blanketed in political ads featuring Orbans main political opponent as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies.

Orbans political machine interprets culture as something that must be occupied or conquered, said Krisztian Nyary, an author who grew up near City Park. They are only capable of thinking in terms of political logic, but culture is different.

He added: Do we need a House of Music? I dont know. I see its a beautiful building, and Im sure theyll have exciting events, but it doesnt belong there. Repurposing the park transforms its function, he said, jeopardizing a valuable natural environment that has served as the lungs of surrounding neighborhoods.

The park is bordered by the Sixth and Seventh districts, which Gabor Kerpel-Fronius, Budapests deputy mayor, said have the fewest green spaces in the city. The museum district, he added, could have been planned elsewhere, such as in a rundown rust zone nearby.

Imre Kormendy, an architect, served as president of the Hungarian Society for Urban Planning when the museum district project began. He quickly learned that the government had no intention of meaningful consultation with stakeholders, he said.

Nave professionals such as myself had no idea this project had already been decided, he said. Not even the Guggenheim was constructed inside of Central Park. Why should a city park be burdened with such development?

Yet Eszter Reisz, who raised her family in the area, said the parks development was fantastic in comparison with its previously unkempt condition.

For Klara Garay, a 71-year-old biology teacher who has lived near the park for decades, the repurposing of the park epitomizes the general climate in Hungary. She has been protesting against the parks redevelopment since it began.

I feel despair, she said. This country is morally at such a low point.

Although the House of Music aims for community-building and education, the strife over its genesis is a reminder of why many of Hungarys most celebrated musicians such as Bartok, or Gyorgy Ligeti left the country.

The political past of Hungary has been very problematic in certain phases of its history, said the musicologist Felix Meyer, who runs the Paul Sacher Foundation in Switzerland. Many of the countrys talented musicians, he added, chose to live in the West.

Its as simple as that, Meyer said. Hungary was a small country and could be very repressive, and not all of them felt appreciated. These are great minds, very liberal minds, people who needed space and opportunities, so its natural they made big careers outside of Hungary.

The acclaimed Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff, who has been in self-imposed exile for over a decade in protest of Orbans politics, said by phone that The way Orban supports culture is very selective. Schiff added that Orban will support everything that follows him, everybody who joins the bandwagon.

Orbans government, Schiff said, tried very hard to change history and change the facts, but it would be better to work on that, to admit faults and mistakes.

Asked if he would consider returning to Hungary if Mr. Orban is ousted in April, Mr. Schiff said, Yes, certainly.

I would love to come back, he said. This is the place I was born, its my mother tongue, and I deeply love Hungarian culture.

The rest is here:
A Music Museum Opens in the Heart of Hungarys Culture Wars - The New York Times

Youve probably heard and read in the media the phrase Culture War, along with references to the Supreme Court and universities. No, this is not a war of books versus whiteboards or clashes between different types of cultures although the latter option is the closest to reality.

It is about undermining access to knowledge and culture as a result of conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices.

To no ones surprise, the term Culture War emerged to describe contemporary political and social issues in the United States. Think abortion, homosexuality, transgender rights, multiculturalism, racism, and more.

Simply put, the so-called Culture War in America is the perennial clash between conservative or traditionalist values and their progressive or liberal counterparts.

And it goes far beyond mere political parties.

Take, for example, the Supreme Courts decision last week to hear a case that could doom university policies that consider race as a factor in student admissions.

As Reuters explained, the issue over student admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, taken up by the court on Monday, gives conservative justices a chance to cripple affirmative action policies long despised by the U.S. right with a ruling expected next year.

Adding to that case are the abortion rights debate and the Second Amendment debate.

The fact that the highest court in the country, with a conservative majority, makes judicial decisions in favor of a grill of conservative arguments can give you an idea of what it means to be immersed in a Culture War.

The term Culture War began to be used in the United States in the 1920s when urban and rural American values were at odds with the interwar wave of immigration.

However, the term would gain traction during the early 1990s, when James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, reintroduced the expression in his 1991 publication, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture.

It was there that the range of issues expanded to gay rights and abortion rights, in what Hunter characterized as a polarity between progressivism and orthodoxy.

In the United States, talking about conservatism without talking about the church is almost impossible. For historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the emergence of the culture wars was a direct product of the end of the Cold War and the rise of evangelical Christians in the United States, who championed the campaign against communism.

When this threat ended with the end of the Cold War, evangelical leaders shifted the source of the perceived threat from foreign communism to domestic changes in gender roles and sexuality.

The pendulum nature of politics in the country, from Democratic to Republican rule, only added fuel to the fire.

In one way or another, the moral polarity in the country corresponded and continues to correspond to electoral political platforms.

While we could spend hours recapping the comings and goings of the Culture War debate in America including the chapter on the unmentionable 45th president the worst episode seems to be taking place directly in the schools.

Conservatives and GOP acolytes have decided to win the Culture War by attacking the source of it all: education.

By taking over school boards, conservatives could win the battle over evolutionary instruction, sex education, abortion, and other controversial issues.

A case in point has been the debate over critical race theory.

As Politico explained, this shift in focus from the Culture War has alternated between religion and history (and lately epidemiology) to the nations identity.

What should be a teachable moment for our children has become another dividing line between their parents. Even the question of masks in schools is now a take-no-prisoners struggle, pitting different versions of America against each other, the magazine explains.

And no people are more manipulable than ignorant people. If the literature on race, identity, and gender is removed from schools, we can end the Culture War and crown the conservative dinosaurs as victors.

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What Does It Mean That America Is Engaged in a Culture War, and Why Should You Care? - BELatina