Rhetorical Analysis: A More Perfect Union

In 2008, then Senator and later President Barack Obama presented a moving speech entitled, “A More Perfect Union.” He spoke mostly about race, but also talked about religion, gender, and other qualities that make the American population so unique and diverse. In this presentation, Obama used many literary devices to make his speech convincing and moving. One of these devices that reoccurs is a propaganda technique called Card Stacking. This is when an author slants a message in some form or another. For example, Barack speaks about his time at Trinity. As with, “other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety..” (Obama) After this, he goes on to explain the rowdiness of his church,