More Good, Less Evil: Contesting the Mythos of National Insecurity in the 2008 Presidential Primaries

The rhetoric of national security in both the Democratic Party and Republican Party presidential primaries functioned very much as an archetypically dark ritual of insecurity. The principal exception was the discourse of candidate Barack Obama, who spoke in a prophetic voice to invoke the myth of American exceptionalism as a foundation of hope and change and to express national mission in more democratic and practical terms. Speaking in a democratic idiom, he turned the mythos of mission from a story of moral conquest into a practical vision of working collaboratively on the global scene to promote peace by augmenting social justice.