WHAT IS TO BE DONE? This summer’s escalating attacks on the autonomy of the National Endowment for the Arts have sent artists, arts administrators, and arts advocates reeling. The scramble is on to mount an effective line of defense. But the methods of attack have made defense uncommonly difficult—they are one part apparently rational circumspection about the use of taxpayers’ dollars to support “offensive” art, and one part irrational panic and hate-filled attacks on “deviant” sexuality.

The arts community has responded directly to the “rational” part, but has generally avoided the underlying,