A Lighthouse and a Crossroads: The Rhetorical Strategy of President Barack Obama

Abstract

A repeating feature of President Barak Obama’s public address is his use of balanced phrasings, dualistic images, and binary structures. Obama enacts these rhetorical strategies to “nest dualism,” to reframe arguments over race and identity, politics and the rule of law—particularly in light of a phenomenon called sound-bite sabotage. Sound-bite sabotage is a set of rhetorical strategies designed by cultural elites to mislead and confuse, to diminish understanding (and valuation) of thoughtful analysis and democratic deliberation. Obama’s rhetoric does not simply oppose sound-bite sabotage with more of the same, but provides an alternative. His rhetoric focuses on concrete ways of reframing conflicts that reveal the distorting effects of entrenched power while remaining instrumentally valuable as a foundation for realistic problem solving. While not interested in erasing or ignoring the tensions in cultural binaries, Obama is also not interested in reifying or calcifying those tensions, in treating them as inevitable or preordained roadblocks to cooperation and compromise. Like John Dewey before him, Obama chooses to engage binary oppositions as richly as he is able, to highlight the shared values, mutual interests, and interdependencies that are often overlooked.