Neem, Johann N. (2008), ‘Obama's critics overlook an important point: Ideas matter. The Seattle Times.
Een reflectie over de waarde van retoriek: daden versus woorden.
Neem (2008) constateert: “What all these criticisms ignore, however, is that ideas matter”.
Ideas matter. Rhetoric is not just rhetoric. Words define for us — political elites and ordinary voters — what problems we are facing and what kinds of solutions we have for them.
Johann Neem gebruikt de metafoor van de “lens”:
Parties must have platforms that inspire voters. The test for any candidate is how well he or she crafts the lens voters wear to make sense of the world. Obama's challenge — the Democrats' challenge — is to do for his party what Reagan did for the Republicans.
But ideas, once accepted, create a new context.
If Obama helps the Democratic Party find focus, his followers will expect him to make good on his promises. Ideas are not effervescent. A successful idea changes how we think and what we expect; it becomes the barometer by which we then assess our leaders.
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