DISCOURSE OF BARACK H. OBAMA
2.2. Political discourse as a reflection of the Obama’s political image development
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7) The problem of the youth
The typical characteristic of Barack Obama political discourse is his careful attitude towards the young generation of the Americans. No wonder, that the focused attention to the problems of the given age category is visible in his speeches where they often meet with the problems of family and education.
Example (4) illustrates the difficulties which young families come across.
2.2. Political discourse as a reflection of the Obama’s political image development
Presidential elections in the United States may be seen as one of the most vivid examples of image development in the American political discourse74. The analysis of pre-election speeches of Mr. Obama reveals that the image of candidate for presidency consisted of some communicational roles, mediated by SA of self presentation. The realization of these acts led to emphasis of the modified individual characteristics and specialties. These characteristics were chosen as image-generating not only due to their domination in Obama’s personality, but on the basis of particular led managed features, which are welcomed and indorsed in the society following established national tradition and acquired historical experience.
The dominant component of the political image is communicative role
“Patriot”, which assumes the demonstration of the following traits of character:
self devotion and fidelity to the people, defense of the country’s national interest, capitulation of personal ambitions to the good of the state. Self presentation, within the context of this communicative role, avoids crude affirmation of the fact, for example: I am a patriot! When this occurs, the situation lacks cogency and forfeits power of conviction. Thus, the typical SA of self presentation is exercised through the indirect verbal expression of patriotic feelings:
74 Lyudmila Karteleva. Verbalization concept of Self as a way of self-presentation of a person in discourse //
Vestnik MSU. - Vol. 19, 2008. № 2.
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Love to the country: Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given. It was how I was raised; it is what propelled me into public service; it is why I 1am running for President75. The following word markers becomes the expression of the feeling: … my deep and abiding love <…> as a given… Parallel constructions, which compose stylistic gradation, help SA to gain strong emotional patriotic overtone. Combination of the word country and demonstrative pronoun this gives evidence that the speaker includes the subject of statement in the field of his direct perception testifying its significance.
Pride in his people’s achievements in the world history: Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom76. Stating oppositions are role forming here: the faint-hearted: the risk-takers, those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame: the doers, the makers of things. They demonstrate admiration and adoration of the speaker before his nation, present Obama’s patriotic mood essential for this communicative role.
Memories, connected with slow staged personal perception of the belonging to the great nation: I remember the cheers and small flags that people waved, and my grandfather explaining how we Americans could do anything we set our minds to do. That's my idea of America77. Using of the first person plural subject pronoun and tail piece we Americans shows that the speaker consider himself a full competent member of the American society, who possesses typical traits of American national character. As is well-known, the United States of America has several variants of denominations, acquired in the society: the United
75 Barack Obama, http://www.usliberals.about.com
76 Ibid.
77 Ibid.
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States of America, the USA, the United States, the US, America. The last one sounds less formal, more “en famille” and appears to be original. Thus, Barack Obama displays his warm feelings towards the country with its prominent history, dating back to the discovery of the continent.
Communicative role “Host” is inherent constituent of the candidate for presidency image. The political leader should have a good handle in the country affairs; know what is indispensable for its development and prosperity. This
“mask” splits into two other communicative roles, at first sight, opposite to each other, - “Representative of the Nation” and «Individualist». However, these roles reflect two key skills important for a politician – listen to others opinion and make his own balanced decision on the basis of the received and analyzed information: If the commanders tell me that they need X, Y and Z, in order to accomplish the very narrow mission that I’ve laid out, than I will take that into consideration78.
The communicative mask “Representative of the Nation” is characterized by the open self-presentation: I’m a US senator, representing American people79. He knows public interests, understands all social problems and needs and carries on a constant dialog with the country nationals with the view of correct decisions on current matters: … a strategy’s not going to be formed in a vacuum and we’re going to have to listen to the actual troops in the field80.
In the role of «Individualist» the speaker appears as a strong decisive personality with his firm believes, high level of self-assurance to bring the country to a better living. This mask wearer shows the skill to stand against apolitical or anti-national opinions, moods, and deeds in his environment. This constituent of the political image has cultural and historical basis and is the true ingredient of American character. It is connected with individualistic type of Western culture, where the art of informed decision-making is highly appreciated.
In SA of the role «Individualist» there are many markers of different degree of categoricity, representing personal opinion of the speaker, for example: I
78 Barack Obama, http://www.nytimes.com
79 Barack Obama, http://www.youtube.com
80 Barack Obama, http://www.nytimes.com
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fundamentally disagree…, I’m absolutely sure…, my first step would be…, my job is to…, I would prefer that we start this process now, I do think… etc. It stands to mention that in Barack Obama’s pre-election campaign communicative role
“Representative of the Nation” in his political image dominates over the role
“Individualist”, it deals with the obvious problems left after a quite authoritarian presidency of George W. Bush, whose image was prevailed by the mask
“Individualist”.
Communicative role ”Self sufficient Leader” also belongs to the hierarchy of image generating roles of President Obama as his ethnic origin is taken into account. The wearer of this mask always feels confident relying on his unique intellectual skills:
– I was never lacking in … In confidence that my particular background would not be a barrier to me running81.
Special communicative tactic is exercised here, originally it has psychological basis. The practice of this strategy is realized by taking handicaps and transforming them in potential advantages: I can be a more effective messenger for some of my policy ideas because I’ve lived in another country, because my father came from a small village in Africa. I think that allows me to communicate these ideas more effectively and I think that the world will take in what I have to say with a more open mind82.
Communicative role “Strategist” should also be mentioned in the structure of political leader’s image development. SA of self-presentation in the context of this particular mask constitutes the model of behavior in a certain situation: I’m not going to set up our troops to failure and I’m not going to do something half-baked.
SA, demonstrating this role, often enumerates methods of a plan realization: We have a very narrow list of things that we want to accomplish: protecting embassies, protecting civilians and counter terrorism in contrast to counter insurgency83.
Communicative role “Strategist” is commonly accompanied by the role
81 Barack Obama, http://www.rollingstone.com
82 Barack Obama, http://www.youtube.com
83 Barack Obama, http://www.nytimes.com
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“Realist”, introduced by the following introductory words and turns of speech: …realistically speaking, That’s precisely why…, that’s exactly what…. I don't get too high, I don't get too low84.
The trust of the voters is the key to election win, and to gain their confidence is possible only in case if the electorate has no doubt in candidate’s honesty. The next communication role which deserves attention is called “Honest Man”. The wearer of this mask demonstrates open-heartedness, directness, frankness and responsibility for the things said: I’ll be honest with you, The truth is…, No one’s going to deceive people…85 etc. SA that serve this communication role include marker words related to the category True/False. The tactic of contrast is popular here as well; the speaker describes and judges the acts of others showing the rightness of his policy: She (Senator Clinton) accepts money from PACs and lobbyists. I don't accept that politics has to be driven by those special interests and lobbyists. <…> Not only is it offensive to me personally, but I think it's bad politics for me. That's not who I am. That's not what my supporters are looking for86.
And the last important communicative role in the speech image of Barack Obama is so called “Fighter”. As well as “Individualist”, it demonstrates typical American personality trait – never give up and always move on despite fear, tiredness and hesitation: I had to think about this long and hard at the beginning of this process and say, 'Are you deluding yourself? Or do you really think that you can do all those things? And I decided, you know, I might just be able to pull it off.
And so a year a later, it turns out that, you know, the jury is still out. But we seem to be stirring things up pretty good87.
Thus, the speech image of the 44th American president during his pre-election campaign was carefully planed and well prepared, the keynote of which was the role “Patriot”. The realization of all communication roles in the majority of cases was exercised implicitly by using different speech tactics:
84 Barack Obama, http://www.nytimes.com
85 Ibid.
86 Barack Obama, http://www.cbsnews.com
87 Ibid.
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− Pronoun We instead of I for the demonstration of solidarity, involvement, immersiveness and unity;
− Possessive pronouns my, our in combination with objects which don’t belong to the speaker in reality. It is done to show his special positive attitude towards these objects: our kids, my country;
− Parallel constructions, which compose stylistic gradation, for the expression of specified emotions, feelings and state of mind of the speaker.
− Opposition, contrast to display personal position of the speaker on some occasion;
− Transformation of handicaps into potential advantages in the eyes of others.
It is noteworthy that pre-election image of Barack H. Obama was constructed on the principle of happy medium88. All the qualities which were demonstrated by Obama as the future leader of the country build a very balanced image of harmonic personality in rapport with himself and others which represents stability.
2.3. Communicative strategy characteristics in the political discourse of