Barack Obama and the Rhetoric of Hope

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The historical and literary antecedents of the President’s campaign rhetoric can be traced to the utopian traditions of the Western world. The
rhetoric of hope
is a form of political discourse characterised by a forward-looking vision of social progress brought about by collective effort and adherence to shared values (including discipline, temperance, a strong work ethic, self-reliance, and service to the community).

By combining his own personal story (as the biracial son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya) with national mythologies like the American Dream, Obama creates a narrative persona that embodies the moral values and cultural mythos of his implied audience. In doing so, he draws upon the Classical world, Judeo-Christianity, the European Enlightenment, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, the presidencies of Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR, slave narratives, the Black church, the civil rights movement, and even popular culture. Barack Obama’s understanding of history as an ongoing process of transformation toward social betterment provides the basis for his ultimate rhetorical formulation of a multicultural utopia that transcends national boundaries.