David's dilemma has particular resonance for me. In more than twenty years of managing programs abroad for the U.S. aid agency and the State Department - including many Thanksgivings in the company of non-Americans - I heard many criticisms of my country - not its people but its policies. In Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, people talked to me about America's too-cozy relationships with kings and other authoritarian leaders and about our support for Israel and their cruel treatment of Palestinians. In Latin America, they reminded me of CIA-supported death squads and of our support for ruthless dictators. In Africa, I heard about our own country's history of racial injustice.
But I was always able to explain and often to defend my country's actions, beginning by acknowledging the truth of much of what I was hearing. In the process, I always felt I was able to make a small contribution to what Mark Brzezinksi recently called America's "credibility as a standard-setter for human rights and the rule of law."
Making that small contribution today is a lot tougher. Because our Public Diplomacy seems to begin - and end - with denial. Which turns our Public Diplomacy into Party-in-Power-Diplomacy. I can't think of a quicker way to kill off The American Dream altogether.
There are parts of our Public Diplomacy efforts that still work. Exchange programs for students, business people and scholars. And the Voice of America, which does a pretty good job of clearly labeling news and opinion and separating fact from spin. These programs existed long before the ascendancy of Karen Hughes. I'm happy to know she supports expanding them.
But I think it's time to question whether public diplomacy should be the exclusive province of government at all. Maybe there are better models. PBS, our Public Broadcasting System (pre-Kenneth Tomlinson) comes to mind. So does the 9/11 Commission.
In both cases, Congress provides the money, but - with a few lamentable lapses - keeps its hands off the execution. It transfers responsibility from the party in power to the people in power.
If you believe in The People, this may be a good time to think about empowering them to keep The American Dream alive.
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