The management of public opinion

THE WHITE HOUSE has been slowly articulating a new principle of government. It now appears that longstanding rules of government are worth preserving only to the extent that they fit the ruling party's agenda.

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There will always be a level of political posturing. What's newsworthy, however, is how increasingly sophisticated tools of communication and public-perception management are being employed by this administration in advancing a set of policies that run against the grain of American character and sentiment in a way that's astonishingly consistent.

Thomas Jefferson said, ''Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our government." The war in Iraq was sold to the American public with the aid of these marketing tools. In the process, we've violated long-held American principles for deciding on war and for the treatment of prisoners once engaged.

Only after the flawed arguments for war were exposed did the tide slowly turn and the president's approval rating sink. Exposed as a wartime president presiding over an illegitimate war, in the runup to the 2004 election the Bush marketing machine was stoked. A curious group of electoral interest groups was cobbled together. These strange bedfellows included corporate elite, evangelical Christians, subsets of the working poor, and fearful young parents. George W. Bush won by the narrowest of historical margins for a president during a time of war.

Consider the curious but revealing pattern of:

Unprecedented levels of government spending.

Unconscionable federal deficits.

Trampling of states' rights when convenient.

Preemptive war as a first resort.

Tough talk but little done to strengthen homeland security.

Largely unprotected US ports.

Forty million Americans without health insurance.

An ongoing attempt to gut Social Security.

These are not broadly popular positions. With powerful marketing tools and skillful strategy, unpopular positions can be sold, at least for a period. But the natural dynamic tension that exists between unpopular positions and American sensibility would logically run its course. One must surely hope so.

GE0RGE RAUTENBERG
West Arlington