"Yes I Can": Obama, The Transactional President
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, January 25 2010
I was struck by something as I listened to President Obama speaking in Elyria, Ohio, last Friday, at one of the occasional townhalls he has held out in Ohio whenever he deems it important to get out of Washington and be seen "connecting" with the public. It wasn't just Obama's constant use of the refrain "I'll never stop fighting for you." (My friend David Corn notes he used the word "fighting" 14 times in his prepared remarks.) It was how often he said "I."
I didn't run for President to turn away from these challenges. I didn't run for President to kick them down the road. I ran for President to confront them - once and for all. I ran for this office to rebuild our economy so it works not just for a fortunate few, but for hardworking people in this country....I had no illusions when I took on health care....I took this up because I want to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can't afford to pay outrageous rates. I want to protect mothers, fathers, children from being targeted by the worst practices of the insurance industry.
I will do this for you; I will continue doing that for you. The first person singular is laced through the speech. Same with his use of the word "we." It's not the formulation that goes with "we are all in this together," another signature Obama phrase that is more inclusive of the public (and a direct ideological response to the Right's "leave me alone" politics). Obama's use of "we" was in the royal sense:
We also passed a Recovery Act to pull our economy back from the brink. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans - 15 different tax cuts for working families and 7 different tax cuts for small businesses so they can start up, and grow, and hire. We extended and increased unemployment insurance. We made COBRA cheaper. We gave aid to states to help them through these tough times. We made the largest investment in infrastructure since the creation of the Interstate Highway System, putting Americans to work rebuilding our roads, bridges and waterways, doing the work America needs done.
What was missing from Obama's speech in Elyria: any mention of the word "us." The relationship between the President and his public--at least at this event in Ohio--is completely transactional. Contrast this to his remarks on Election Night 2008:
This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
In that speech, Obama used the phrase "let us" five times, and the word "us" appears a total of 13 times. And he weaves a communal narrative of change and hope, wherein his election is subsumed in a much larger story of progress in America, one that steadily encompasses more people and summons the country to higher goals, and one that requires public participation in making change real.
I don't know if all of that was just rhetoric, or if Obama has been ground down by a year of living in the White House bubble. But while there have been some interesting changes in tone (supposedly in a more "populist" direction), priorities ("we want our money back" from the banks), and staffing (David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, is now said to be playing a larger role as an outside political advisor to the President), there still seems to a be a big disconnect here. Obama seems to have forgotten that he was elected to do more than deliver bacon to kitchen tables, but to also change how the country works. The open, networked, participatory nature of the Internet ought to be his guide; but despite some valiant efforts inside his Administration in that direction, it looks like Obama himself is stuck in a very old groove, one that has captured every one of his predecessors.