Natural Disasters and the Rhetorical Construction of American Values: Community Exceptionalism as Representative Anecdote

ABSTRACT

This study examines the rhetoric of U.S. senators and representatives regarding natural disasters in their home states. Using Kenneth Burke’s dramatism, we examine four model speeches by members of Congress and identify the representative anecdote of community exceptionalism. This anecdote portrays disaster-affected communities as exemplars of rugged individualism, patriotism, and faith, and thus worthy of national praise and federal aid. In this anecdote, aid becomes partly contingent upon the exhibition of a set of values rather than simply upon the material conditions of the disaster. Moreover, the term community exceptionalism—like any term—creates both unity and division, as linguistic concepts cannot be understood without contrasting dialectical terms. Thus, following Burke’s conceptions of order, hierarchy, and perfection, the representative anecdote points toward American exceptionalism, where conceptions of American uniqueness and moral superiority are sustained and renewed by the subtle themes within speeches that are ostensibly about comforting disaster victims and securing federal aid for devastated communities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Although theorizing on civil religion as opposed to American exceptionalism, Bellah (1967) made similar observations. He argued that the “motivating spirit” of America’s founders was the belief that America was a chosen land (p. 5). The rhetoric of Thomas Jefferson and others, he said, portrayed America as the land where God had led his chosen people to “establish a new sort of social order that [would] be a light unto all the nations” (p. 8). This rhetoric and the ideology it espouses has persisted, particularly among American presidents. Moreover, just like American exceptionalism, civil religion justifies America’s behavior, as America is fulfilling God’s will.