Blog Post 4: President Obama said "God's Work"

This week President Obama gave a statement indicating that the Organization for Action (OFA) was doing "God's Work."  Obama was boosting the morale of the volunteers that were pushing citizens to get health insurance for those that do not have insurance with Obamacare before the March 31st deadline.  In his statement Obama was saying not to be discouraged by partisan attacks and that he and his team in Washington can only talk so much, but what really makes a difference are the volunteers' actions.  Obama said "The work you're doing is God's work.  It is hard work." 

I found this article related to Stephen Heidt's article "The Presidency as Pastiche: Atomization, Circulation, and Rhetorical Instability," because President Obama's statement is a pastiche where it somewhat resembles a pastor or priest preaching and by encouraging the volunteers to keep doing what they are doing.  Pastiche means a work of art or literature that imitates a style or character of someone or something else and by celebrating the work, not mocking it.  The ideography for Obama's statement would be "God's work," because just by saying it, it automatically gives the idea of being holy, divine, and ultimately morale and just.  The term "God's work" is a fragment in Obama's address that "...perform specific functions in the service of ideological goals" (Heidt 624) because it reminds the volunteers and the supporters that despite the negative campaigning they are still doing something for a good cause, and that is allowing everyone to get health insurance.  By saying "God's work," President Obama is reminding the supporters, volunteers, and everyone else, even the opposing side, that getting everyone to get health insurance is ultimately good which benefits the greater good of the American people.  In this sense the ideograph "God's work," functioned as a rhetorical text that "...interpellated audiences into a narrative that constituted their identities and didactically animated their political activity" (Heidt 624) because it boosted the people's morale and reminded them that they are doing good works giving the notion that they are saints in the presence of sinners saving their souls, almost literally by forcing them to get health insurance.