Ex-presidential aide: Bush critics too quiet

A onetime confidante to four U.S. presidents railed against the silence of the "rational center" — the news editors, think tank analysts and politicians who privately doubt the Bush administration's policies but say nothing publicly — during a lecture yesterday in Robertson Hall.

Former Republican adviser Stefan Halper, who served presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and H. W. Bush, said Americans must challenge the "big ideas" of presidential administrations when they lead to unwise policy decisions.

"The root of the problem," Halper said, "is in how we frame oncoming challenges, how we debate them and how we decide [on] a course of action."

In times of crisis, he said, policy debate is unreliable because it is shaped by the "24/7" media cycle and Americans' willingness to accept worldviews that come from the White House.

Now the director of Cambridge University's Atlantic Studies Programme, Halper studies the United States from across the Atlantic, outside the haze of domestic politics. He served in the White House and the State Department during the 1970s and 1980s.

He argued that American "exceptionalism" — the historically held view of "America as the new Jerusalem, America as the last, best hope on earth" — becomes popular during times of crisis but can hamper decision-makers' abilities to formulate well-crafted policies. "We respond [to crises] by asserting our values and asserting our objectives," he said.

"Used unwisely, big ideas unleash emotions," he added, which he claims the Bush administration has used to its advantage by compressing complex issues into simple phrases.

The 24/7 media magnifies this problem by feeding a public that is "hungry for a constant stream of catchy notions ... attract[ing] eyes and ears and advertising dollars." Buried by this flood of "infotainment," Halper said, actual policy decisions become difficult to discern.

"Entertaining slogans dominate the discourse, instead of the kinds of debate we need in order to execute a successful policy." As a result of succumbing to those slogans, he said, the rational center stays silent, just like the average American.

Halper highlighted points throughout history when presidents have used slogans to rally the nation, drawing parallels between the buildup to the war in Iraq and the attacks on communism during the Cold War.

The rational center has neglected its duty in both eras, he said, by failing to criticize government policies or demand justifications for their actions.

Both in the past and today, he added, experts who do speak up have been "bundled off into premature retirement."

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Americans in general, particularly members of the "rational center," are afraid to challenge the Bush administration's actions for fear they will be labeled "unpatriotic" and "uncaring," he said.

"Had the Senate challenged the administration, had The New York Times and The Washington Post [challenged it], had the think tanks produced articles which questioned the approach to democratize the [Middle East]," he said, "it would've been a different situation."

"There's a 'golden hour,' " he added. "There's a time when you can intervene and a time when you can do it effectively. If you are late or mistaken, [you lose that chance]."

Illustrating his own brush with the quelling of centrist sentiment, Halper turned to a personal anecdote. With the upcoming publication of his book, "The Silence of the Rational Center: Why American Foreign Policy is Failing," he joked, he has been "dropped from every dinner list in Washington."