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Now that Barack Obama is an historical phenomenon… we can critically examine how he succeeded in re-constructing “identity” in the public square. The story is not about what happened to get him to the presidency BUT how he successfully changed the subjective and collective meanings of millions by creating a newly identified category - US!

The “us” is back in the USA!

When President Obama ended his oath on January 20, 2009 with the words… “So help me God” it was clear that he was the leader the nation needed for “the raging time.” Like children who can only mature when they move beyond a focus on “self,” God has given the World, the global village… an inspiring leader who is capable of getting the “me generation” to finally move on. Not surprisingly, consumerism itself is based on a “me-thinking” philosphy: it’s the individual that matters. In that kind of environment, we are definitely not the change we have been waiting for. In fact, the economic and political types of “me-thinking” are not compatabile with change; the status quo works.

But then the market failed in 2008! And, contrary to appearance, it did not happen suddenly. The footprint of economic collapse can be traced back to the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration, when political rhetoric and actions emphasized the deregulation of industry after industry. The removal or loosening of regulations provided an environment for less oversight. The “raging” financial storm grew stronger over the decades as individual greed kept feeding it.

Lots of individuals who believe in fiscal responsibility, smaller government, the status quo, and individualism… successfully maintain a political identity that depends more on a “me,” than an “us” philosophy. To argue, for example, that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps assumes two things: (1) you have bootstraps and (2) you don’t need solidarity or help from others. The economic marketplace philosophy does not recognize the concept of community. Economists, for instance, focus on firms, not human beings who might not move in predictable or “estimated” ways.

Barack Obama changed the language. He directed attention to what had been excluded. The candidate stirred the public imagination by bringing more of “us” into the big picture. The language of HOPE and CHANGE ultimately results in political realignment when people no longer hold “blind allegiance to the competitive market.”

President Obama’s job has been to get more of “us” to see that we must take responsibility for the impact of whatever politics we practice. Who wins and who loses when we embrace selfishness and materialism as a society? To base health care on who has the resources to purchase it, is in essence, the same as letting the marketplace decide who lives and who dies. But while we don’t have a market mechanism to stop the growing disparities, we do have, as Barack Obama is teaching us, politics to enforce change. We have already witnessed the ethos of selfishness from those who have preached the loudest about a need for responsibility - conservatives.

President Obama’s conceptual task has been cut out for him. He’s had to bring back in what has been taken out or excluded (the sanctity of human beings, a spirit of community, the natural status of individuals helping individuals) and weave a new narrative around it - “Yes, we can!”

Thus, “we” have become the epistemological other; the unspoken, hidden and repressed social concept in corporate marketplace thinking. That is to say the president is helping us to reconnect to ourselves by moving the narrative away from “I” to “us.” By analyzing the process by which meanings are changed, my research focuses on the politics of identity. Words matter! If we are seeking a morally centered universe, then our stories and focus must change.

What makes Barack Obama’s leadership so different and inspiring, is that he gets that he is educating for change. But he is not teaching subjects, he’s teaching us how to think and redefine who we are. He’s teaching a different vision about community and connectedness with words like “unity.”

President Obama does not say, “I am the change,” the truth, or the light. His revitalized concept of power generates a new way of thinking that is inclusive. The Obama rhetoric makes it clear that the day of top-down power is over. Power to the people, too!

What the president has done, then, in creating a new conceptual landscape is to get us to recognize each other and the best in ourselves.

Instead of the human spirit shrinking, now thanks to the election of Barack Hussein Obama, we have a new identity in the 21st century that’s being changed by the language we used. The buzz in the air at the inauguration for the 44th president was about more than people being ready for change. People were excitied because they felt engaged. You could see it in their eyes. You could feel it in their voices and patience as they moved along with a million other individuals. They obviously got that we’re all part of a social movement that’s promising a new level of caring and results.

So the buzz of empowerment is growing as political rhetoric shifts to talks about improving the common good and serving others.

The new president has set the tone and challenged once dominant discourses. By reinterpreting the situation, Barack Obama is creating a different identify for us and the world.

CHANGE changes things!

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