Cannon and Riehl. (2004). Presidential Greenspeak: How Presidents Talk About the Environment and What it Means

How is the culture of environmentalism reflected in the rhetoric or speech of our presidents? Is mainstream environmentalism reflected, or are more radical positions addressed?

rhetoric can be important as it becomes an instrument of governance. "presidential speeches and other events that stir public admiration and reassure us that he is in tune with us on important issues are understood as essential to effective governance" (3).

Does the influence of rhetoric undermining democracy, especially its deliberative elements?
No.
1 Rhetoric can aid accountability--the public can punish him/her if he speaks and it dislikes what he says. "presidential rhetoric is one basis for evaluating whether the president is reliably representing our national values, aspiriations and preferred polices" (3).
2 rhetoric provides a standard by which their policies can be judged. Did they really do what they said they were going to do?

what is the affect of presidential rhetoric on our political life?

the authors reject the political science apprach--which assures that presidents act out of political self interest and use rhetoric as a means to produce positive public responses--and instead adopt the humanities approach which "assumes that the world created by presodential rhetoric has significance in and of itself, apart from its political consequences or lack thereof. We take the images, metaphors, stories, ideas, and moral sentiments in the rhetoric as an embodiment of our national culture, an artifact that can yield important insigns about ourselves" (5). the authors proscribe that an understanding of american environmentalism can be drawn from presidential rhetoric.