Althouse: "Ex beauty pageant competitor wants to decide what is and isn’t appropriate for the Smithsonian."

April 21, 2025

"Ex beauty pageant competitor wants to decide what is and isn’t appropriate for the Smithsonian."

"Great — if the administration is going to embrace stupid, it might as well go all the way. Just another incompetent boob doing a job they aren’t qualified for and they’ve no business doing. There are some parts of American history I don’t like — that doesn’t mean I get to pretend they didn’t happen or demand they be stricken from museums and textbooks. It’s how most of us learn. And if we actually learn the lessons our ancestors taught us, we don’t do those things again. Unless you are a Republican — then you embrace the wrongs of the past. And btw — art can make people feel uncomfortable sometimes — it’s supposed to evoke feeling!"

A comment, over at The Washington Post, on an article titled "She told Trump the Smithsonian needs changing. He’s ordered her to do it. Who is Lindsey Halligan, the attorney assigned to help remove 'improper ideology' from a major cultural institution?" (free-access link).

52 comments:

rehajm said...: And btw — art can make people feel uncomfortable sometimes — it’s supposed to evoke feeling!"

…consider the work of this boob a performance piece…; 4/21/25, 8:35 AM
Peachy said...: Say the insane MSNBC boobs who instigate domestic terrorism (antifa and BLM riots) - and encourage THE REMOVAL OF HISTORIC CIVIC STATUES.; 4/21/25, 8:35 AM
Tacitus said...: Seems a bit hurtful and anti-woman to A) refer to her as a boob, that was not accidental, and B) to make her former beauty pageant background more important than her graduating law school. But....from people who can't define "woman" what actually is anti-woman?; 4/21/25, 8:39 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/25, 8:42 AM
Wince said...: Nearly two months into the new administration, Smithsonian museums remained largely unchanged. In March, the Museum of African American History and Culture is celebrating The Activist as a part of this year’s theme of the “Year of the Black Woman.”

The Black Revolutionary Artist exhibit at the National Gallery of Art is scheduled to remain open until July 6.; 4/21/25, 8:42 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: The Resistance Media is so dispirited it can't even keep up with the important positions filled by Trump and currently peopled by those energetically changing our government for the good. So they find someone who is in charge of something that very few will ever be affected by and go after her.

What a surprise! (Not.) Leftists have ruined museums and art galleries with their woke BS so I find it difficult, given the exceedingly low supply I have of give-a-fucks, to find even a small one to assign to this effort.; 4/21/25, 8:43 AM
Levi Starks said...: Wouldn’t choosing to identify a female Lawyer as an ex beauty contestant be improper ideology?; 4/21/25, 8:48 AM
Jimmy said...: More anti Trump garbage from the NYT.
Hate and envy are the lefts only response to Trump. and of course accusing him of doing exactly what they have done.; 4/21/25, 8:48 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Glad the change was made at the Smithsonian. The next project should be far left wing Rangers/tour guides at historical sites. By way of example a guided tour through the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado turned into an hour long screed against Caucasians from Europe, their deeds done dirt cheap and the noble sacrifices of the native peoples of North America. Rote, banal and exceedingly tiresome.; 4/21/25, 8:49 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Trump likes hot lawyer ladies. I'm surprised Althouse doesn't have stint with Trump on her resume'.; 4/21/25, 8:54 AM
Dude1394 said...: Lefties can do any damn stupid anti American thing they want and their propaganda partners will cheer it. And the mindless minions will agree with it. Democrats have become literally unhinged, but that is the way of communists everywhere.; 4/21/25, 8:56 AM
Aggie said...: Archive is working to get the article so I can actually read it - but it sounds like another one of those inaccurate smear jobs, designed to mislead by focusing on the wrong things. What's the opposite of 'Puff Piece'?; 4/21/25, 8:58 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: The comment is laughable in so many ways. The Smithonian, like almost all cultural institituions, has been captured by the Left, and they're pushing the leftist agenda. And cancelling and getting rid of anything they don't approve of.

The Left are NOT brave little truth-seekers, trying to conter-act some massive "God Bless America" propaganda machine. They are in charge. They are the ones with a massive propaganda machine. And they all follow the party line and they speak with the same voice.

And please spare me the credentialism (I'm an x-burt in history) and elitism (She's just a beauty pagenw winner). We have PHD's in history that can't spell or write a single page of historical analysis without larding it with left-speak or jargon.; 4/21/25, 8:59 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: The same type of people who pulled down are R.E. Lee's statue because he was a hate "white man oppressor" are the same ones that need to be weeded out of the Smithonian; 4/21/25, 9:02 AM
CJinPA said...: There are some parts of American history I don’t like — that doesn’t mean I get to pretend they didn’t happen or demand they be stricken from museums and textbooks.

This is a dishonest framing of the issue. There is no danger museums and schools will stop teaching about the bad things America did. The disagreement is whether those bad this should *define* our nation.

The Left has politicized history for their benefit for the last 50 years. Once you've undermined the moral legitimacy of a nation, it's just a matter of time before you can transform it into something else.; 4/21/25, 9:04 AM
Bob Boyd said...: "Ex Beauty Pageant Competitor"
WaPo readers know that means they're supposed to hate her.; 4/21/25, 9:09 AM
mikee said...: When the Smithsonian used the display of the Enola Gay to attempt an unwarranted apology to the world for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that, I am certain, wasn't a political decision based on anti-American leftist progressivism. And I'm the Queen of Romania!

The issue here is the Left politicized history beyond all reality for their narrative of "America bad, do what we say or you're bad!" To hell with that, to hell with them.; 4/21/25, 9:18 AM
William said...: While it's true that our nation's leaders and founders were for the most part racist, what they accomplished was not for the most part racist. Their thoughts and executive actions were not exclusively concerned with screwing over minorities. They did other things like, for instance, establishing a form of government where racism became untenable.; 4/21/25, 9:24 AM
William said...: How about a Smithsonian exhibit on the racial views and hypocrisies of the founders and guiding spirits of the Democratic Party. Jefferson, Jackson, and Wilson retrograde opinions and actions should be highlighted. The exhibit should also feature the fulsome praise that these leaders received from intellectuals and historians. Maybe a special exhibit on FDR's internment of the Japanese. The exhibit could explain how 80,000 plus Japanese American citizens were interned and that this internment, not the McCarthy era, was the greatest infringement of civil rights after the Jim Crow laws......I'm open to an exhibit on how retrograde sexual views of many civil rights readers starting with Frederick Douglas. Such an exhibit would make us all more open minded and tolerant.; 4/21/25, 9:32 AM
mccullough said...: Start with the Crow Creek Massacre.

The Native American tribes were savages.

That is not taught.; 4/21/25, 9:35 AM
Martin said...: If it was an ugly Democrat woman lawyer making the Smithsonian do Democrat things that would be ok. It is bad for a pretty Republican woman lawyer to make the Smithsonian do Republican things. That is what I have learned from The WP article.; 4/21/25, 9:38 AM
Big Mike said...: I suppose that “ex beauty pageant competitor” is meant to suggest that she’s too beautiful to be smart.

Sexist assh*le; 4/21/25, 9:42 AM
mindnumbrobot said...: According to the WP, this pretty young lady doesn't know her place. I guess she should be in the kitchen making a chicken pot pie or cleaning something.; 4/21/25, 10:05 AM
Rocco said...: From the article…
“…Just another incompetent boob…”

I suspect there’s more competency in her left boob than in the commenter’s entire body.; 4/21/25, 10:08 AM
MadisonMan said...: The quote seems complete sexist manure to me.; 4/21/25, 10:16 AM
Readering said...: Attendance has never recovered to pre-covid levels. Smithsonian needs to make a big push in advance of 7/4/26. But that will take a much bigger effort than appointing Trump's solo local counsel in Florida as a WH staffer. Has she even met with Vance?; 4/21/25, 10:30 AM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Just another incompetent boob doing a job they aren’t qualified for and they’ve no business doing.

Which is a good way to describe pretty much everyone the Biden Admin had making those decisions.

There are some parts of American history I don’t like — that doesn’t mean I get to pretend they didn’t happen or demand they be stricken from museums and textbooks

Oh, you mean like destroying statues of Southerners, having then taken from museums?

The Left always projects their evils on the rest of us

It’s how most of us learn.

Which is why you are constantly removing everything to offends your political ideology.

Well, you enjoyed you FA, now it's FO time, where you ideology gets trampled; 4/21/25, 10:43 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: I'm going to just agree with pretty much everyone else here, sexism from the left.; 4/21/25, 10:43 AM
Goldenpause said...: The left has destroyed the credibility of “experts” and still sneers at someone who doesn’t have the “proper” credentials. What a surprise.; 4/21/25, 10:47 AM
Not Illinois Resident said...: She probably is more qualified than the ex-bartender AOC. Our former Mafia-adjacent Baltimore beauty queen Pelosi.; 4/21/25, 10:51 AM
JIM said...: I find the expertise of experts to be lacking in objectivity. I remember when it was the duty of a Democrat to "question authority". Now they willingly bend a knee to the thuggery of the expert class.; 4/21/25, 10:55 AM
Mr. T. said...: dering said...
Attendance has never recovered to pre-covid levels. Smithsonian needs to make a big push in advance of 7/4/26. But that will take a much bigger effort than appointing Trump's solo local counsel in Florida as a WH staffer. Has she even met with Vance?

For those of us not fluent in incoherency, what the hell are you babbling about?; 4/21/25, 10:56 AM
Rocco said...: mccullough said...
“Start with the Crow Creek Massacre. The Native American tribes were savages. That is not taught.”

Continue with the Beaver Wars where both sides committed mass atrocities on each other; the Erie tribe and the Neutral confederacy were genocided out of existence.; 4/21/25, 10:58 AM
Immanuel Rant said...: I must admit, I, as several have noted, had the initial reaction of "Why is her former beauty-pageant history more important than her being an attorney, or even her undergraduate degree?"; 4/21/25, 11:02 AM
hombre said...: I’m not sure that the opinion of a WaPo food and fashion journalist that Halligan, a trial lawyer with several years of successful insurance law practice behind her, is “stupid” and “incompetent” counts for much. Just another leftmediaswine hit piece to protect Democrat corruption. We know the left corrupts history, see the 1619 project, why not the Smithsonian?; 4/21/25, 11:14 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: A "mean girl" sort of comment. Some folks never get out of high school in their thinking. As for whether a lawyer--of either sex--former beauty pageant contestant or not--can run the Smithsonian. If my memory is correct Ira Michael Heyman--one of my law professors at Boalt Hall in the late 1960s went on to head up the Smithsonian. If not the Smithsonian, then a similar cultural institution in Washington D.C. Mike was a nice guy, and a decent Con Law professor. But I doubt that he had much of a historian's professional chops. I won't speculate as to whether the writer of this ridiculous piece was one of "cool kids" in high school or not--but probably not.; 4/21/25, 11:18 AM
Jim Gust said...: She could not do worse than those she's replacing.; 4/21/25, 11:46 AM
loudogblog said...: "art can make people feel uncomfortable sometimes — it’s supposed to evoke feeling!"

This cuts both ways. They're upset that someone is removing their art and replacing it with art that makes them feel uncomfortable. And that's definitely evoking feelings in them.

I have no problem with art having a political message. But at an institution, like the Smithonian, it should represent diverse views, not just one point of view.

Plus, from what I understand, the Smithonian isn't primarily an art gallery. It's a museum and zoo.; 4/21/25, 11:47 AM
Real American said...: As stated above, the commenter (a leftist, naturally) mischaracterized the issue. We're not removing America's bad history from museums or schools. Those things are being taught.

What should be removed and not taught is the BS notion that the American people in general today are responsible for those historical ills as if all of the corrective and remedial measures (like the Civil War, Civil Rights legislation, actual progress, etc) never happened. Leftists want Americans, particularly White Americans alive today, to feel guilty for slavery and segregation and "genocide" of which they played no part and that means they have to pay up and take a back seat today.

It is the Woke Left that wants to erase the parts of the past that they don't like and pretend nothing has changed and there's nothing we can do about except keep apologizing and forking over those dollars. It's all cover for their own racial resentment, which they fuel to empower themselves and enrich themselves. These people are con artists and the morons that push this BS should be mocked, maligned, and then ignored.; 4/21/25, 11:51 AM
Hassayamper said...: from what I understand, the Smithonian isn't primarily an art gallery. It's a museum and zoo.

It's multiple museums, multiple art galleries, a zoo, and a botanical garden. There are 21 different components, including at least 6 that are devoted to the display of art. The old original "Castle" building on the Washington Mall, which most people think of when the Smithsonian is mentioned, is only a small part of the whole.; 4/21/25, 12:03 PM
Bob Boyd said...: I suspect there’s more competency in her left boob than in the commenter’s entire body.

It's worth a look.; 4/21/25, 12:03 PM
Mr. T. said...: Washington Post

Where democracy dies in misogyny...; 4/21/25, 12:10 PM
Hassayamper said...: Continue with the Beaver Wars where both sides committed mass atrocities on each other; the Erie tribe and the Neutral confederacy were genocided out of existence.

That's why there was a "Last of the Mohicans". They weren't exterminated by the white man; they were victims of a viciously cruel genocide by the Iroquois Confederation. That's the same Iroquois who always get a tongue bath from the Left for allowing women to speak in their tribal councils and having a prototypical form of egalitarian democracy that preceded Columbus and the European settlement of the Americas.

The few Mohicans who survived were absorbed, or enslaved, by the Lenape and Munsee tribes.; 4/21/25, 12:19 PM
WhoKnew said...: "There are some parts of American history I don’t like — that doesn’t mean I get to pretend they didn’t happen or demand they be stricken from museums and textbooks" True, enough. But no one is tryuong to do this. Instead they are trying to take out blatant falsehoods that have been pushed in by the leftists running these institutions. For just one example, the 1619 project.; 4/21/25, 2:21 PM
Tina Trent said...: "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," Trump's decree on the Smithsonian and other national historical sites and museums, is an interesting read with concrete examples of leftist excesses. The American Women's History Museum is directed to record and celebrate achievements by women only, not, for example, transgenders' achievements in women's sports, which is one upcoming exhibit. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is criticized for an exhibit stating that "hard work," "individualism," and "the nuclear family" are "White culture."; 4/21/25, 2:26 PM
RMc said...: Just another incompetent boob doing a job they aren’t qualified for and they’ve no business doing.

You can tell who the incompetent boobs are by checking if their politics are different from yours.; 4/21/25, 5:56 PM
Jeff Hall said...: Do you know, I've known a couple of male attorneys who used to compete as body-builders, and I don't recall anyone sneering about "ex-body builder" daring to engage in public service.; 4/21/25, 6:18 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Maybe a special exhibit on FDR's internment of the Japanese.

Last time I was at the National Museum of American History (granted, it was a few years ago), they had an on just that.

What's your point?; 4/21/25, 7:03 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Start with the Crow Creek Massacre.

Oh gee, let's go back to the 14th Century. I wonder what was going on in Western Europe at the same time.; 4/21/25, 7:10 PM
Cameron said...: These are the same people tearing down Civil War era statues right ?; 4/21/25, 8:40 PM
ron winkleheimer said...: "Oh gee, let's go back to the 14th Century."

I don't see your point. Yeah, the 14th century in Europe was a difficult time to be alive due to various factors. So what? The 18th century wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but it was especially bad if you were a Mohican Indian.; 4/22/25, 8:09 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: By the way, in the unlikely event that anyone will see this, and because we are talking about the last of the Mohicans,
https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html; 4/22/25, 8:16 AM