Agency & Rhetoric

 I love Cooper’s use of Obama’s speeches when talking about Rhetorical Agency. Like Cooper stated, “Obama’s ability to imagine accurately and empathetically what it would be like to take various courses of action is what enables him to take up his habitual role as a mediator (Cooper 433).” We see Obama's agency for a common good and unity looking at his past involvement as a community organizer. Obama’s mastery of rhetoric and speech make him an impressive orator that can break down an issue and explain the sides. I think a great example of this is a speech Obama gave at a town hall on PBS NewsHour. The topic is on restriction towards guns where he uses an example of traffic accidents and how they studied ways to prevent accidents and wanting to do the same for bad actors in specific (PBS NewsHour 00:52-03:57). I think with an example like this Obama starts off acknowledging the agency of the audience member concerned for gun rights and that he doesn’t want to take away or reduce rights to good gun owners but bad ones. According to Garsten (qtd. In Cooper), “An orator does not coerce; he merely puts words into the air (437).” Obama then goes on to talk about how we have gotten better regulation to reduce car accidents, giving us a clear example of putting words into the air for people to process and relate to. Cause each individual agent to think upon the subject in this constitutional process of agency.

Cooper, Marilyn M. “Rhetorical Agency as Emergent and Enacted.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 62, no. 3, National Council of Teachers of English, 2011, pp. 420–49.

PBS NewsHour. “Why restrict 'good' gun owners, resident asks President Obama at town hall” YouTube, uploaded by PBS NewsHour, 2 Jun, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imFvSua3Kg.