On Thursday evening, about 50 people gathered at the Ford School of Public Policy for an event called, “Whither the Center-Right?” to hear Robert Doar, president of the American Enterprise Institute, and Celeste Watkins-Hayes, dean of the Public Policy School, speak about the role of the center-right in the American conservative movement today. Doar also discussed the role of evidence-based policy institutions and emphasized the value of having conversations across ideological differences. Following their conversation, Public Policy professor Luke Shaefer; Mara Ostfeld, research director at the Center for Racial Justice; and Public Policy lecturer Rusty Hills led a Q&A session.
Before joining AEI, Doar worked at various social service programs, such as the National Commission on Hunger, New York City Human Resources Administration and New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Doar joined AEI in 2014 and became president of the organization in 2019.
Doar opened the event by introducing AEI’s values, such as free enterprise, limited government and operating as an independent organization.
“AEI has distinguished itself, I believe, by preserving our independence,” Doar said. “We’re always non-partisan, we’re always civil, we’re always empirical and we’re always supporting certain principles about free enterprise, limited government and a strong American role in the world.”
After Doar’s opening remarks, Watkins-Hayes asked him about the different approaches politicians take when advocating for specific policies.
“(In) so much of what we’re talking about, there’s an underlying importance of how it gets done, not just what gets done,” Watkins-Hayes said. “So I wonder if you can talk about methods of persuasion, methods of moving policy forward, because the strategy of ‘we don’t like it, therefore it’s gone,’ is one approach versus ‘we don’t like it, can we think about how we can change the method?’”
Doar agreed with Watkins-Hayes’s comment about what he described as a closed-minded approach that many politicians have adopted.
“This is entirely played out in our public policy world in Congress, which is broken,” Doar said. “It has lost its ability to reason together across party lines, and decisions are only being made by the majority and the speaker, and that’s a real tragedy.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, U-M alum Ashley Burnside, who attended the event, said she appreciated listening to diverse political perspectives.
“I was interested in the diversity of speakers here,” Burnside said. “I’ve followed AEI a lot, so I was just kind of interested to get both of their perspectives and hear what they had to say about this very dynamic political moment we’re in.”
Rackham student Margaret Owsiany said in an interview with The Daily she was interested in attending an event that would discuss conservative viewpoints, as she believed those were not as commonly hosted by the school.
“I like to support the events that they hold, and I try to go to different ones and see different perspectives,” Owsiany said. “Michigan is a quite liberal school; to have an event that is right-of-center is rare here, so I wanted to come to that and listen to what he had to say and how the school handles a right-of-center event.”
Toward the end of the event, Shaefer asked Doar about the reasoning behind the event’s title.
“I was really struck by your title, ‘Whither the Center-Right?’” Shaefer said. “That was phrased as a question, so I wanted to ask you to reflect on that a bit more. Should we take that as you wondering why the center-right is withered, and are these sorts of reflections part of that?”
Doar said that the title’s meaning was more to show that the center-right continues to contribute to U.S. politics.
“I was just trying to say ‘it’s still here, still viable,’” Doar said. “I don’t believe that the story is over today. The story keeps going. We keep reinventing ourselves.”
Daily Staff Reporter Grace Park can be reached at gracepm@umich.edu.
