Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues for almost 20 years.
BRATTLEBORO-It was bad enough when the White House Oval Office was suddenly transformed into a fire sale of faux gold decorations dripping from the mantlepiece and every other available space. Before that it was an elegant room in the White House, lovingly called the “people’s house,” which has always been recognized as a National Historic Site.
The “Oval” was a warm and elegant place where serious, important decisions were discussed by dignified, respected leaders and advisors with strong portfolios who realized the magnitude of the issues being addressed. Today, sadly, it looks like a third-rate setting for a Molière comedy.
Now comes the devastation of the East Wing.
Photos of the desecration of that much loved part of the White House are a sickening metaphor for the destruction of democracy we are witnessing. In addition to the building disappearing, some of us can’t stop wondering what happened to the artwork, furnishings, historic references, and more that were housed there. Were these objects treated as debris or simply looted before the demolition, as other dictators have done?
Critics have compared the demolition of the historic building to “slashing a Rembrandt.” Betty Ford called the East Wing the “heart” of the White House. First ladies have worked from their offices there on important issues ranging from drug abuse to boosting literacy and preserving the White House itself.
In a commentary in The Architect’s Newspaper, a columnist noted that “The East Wing historically housed the Office of the First Lady; it seems nothing was done to protect the history of women’s contributions to the presidency. By bulldozing the structure, Trump is effectively erasing women from the history of the White House.”
Rosalynn Carter was the original first lady to have an office in the East Wing. “I always need a place to go that is private, where I don’t have to dress and don’t have to put on makeup,” she wrote in her memoir. “The offices of the staff of the first lady were always in the East Wing, and it seemed a perfect place for my office too.”
Hillary Clinton became the determined first lady to insist that her office be in the West Wing because she felt that her staff needed to be “integrated physically” with the president’s team. But Michelle Obama worked from the East Wing to support military families and promote higher education for girls in poor countries and set a standard as a global role model. And Jill Biden, who continued teaching while serving as first lady, advocated for cancer research and women’s health.
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The East Wing was originally known as the East Terrace in 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was president. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt converted a cloakroom in the East Terrace into a screening room so that he could watch newsreels during World War II. Other presidents used the movie theater to rehearse important speeches including the State of the Union.
FDR created the East Wing as we have known it in 1942 to have more workspace during the war and to conceal an underground bunker for the president and staff. Today some people posit that the bunker is the reason the current president wants to obscure it with a massive structure which, unsurprisingly, will be named “The Donald J. Trump Ballroom.”
They suggest that the ever-paranoid president wants the bunker to be a safe space for him, one that is well-equipped to indulge the ultra-right-wing fascist fantasies that he clings to, as well as for his sycophants who can be directed by their leader as he advances his autocratic regime.
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The idea of a massive ballroom is obscene. It’s also likely to be illegal, as Trump had ignored proper approvals from the National Park Service and the National Capital Planning Commission.
It’s an especially heinous Gilded Age insult and an anomaly in the face of a government shutdown that still affects millions of Americans in numerous and terrible ways. It smacks of robber barons and “Let them eat cake.”
It’s clearly a corrupt moneymaker — an eyesore in the landscape of Washington and a symbol of the narcissism that is tearing us apart.
No wonder historians, preservationists, art lovers, architects, and ordinary Americans are distraught, not only for the loss of this historical building, but for the lack of transparency, the lying about funding, the underlying corruption, and its implications — all of which the president chooses to call “manufactured outrage.”
The travesty of such narcissism is stunning.
The bottom line is that a ballroom monument to oneself has no place in the people’s house, now or ever. It’s time to insist that such acts of ego be stopped.
This Voices column was submitted to The Commons.
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