Ethical Definitions? Purposive Appeals to Scene, Agency, and Agent as the Denial of Ethical Choice in Bush’s Same-Sex Marriage Addresses

• In Event: Applying Burkean Theory to our Political Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Through combining Burke’s cluster and pentad tools to analyze Bush’s 2004 same-sex marriage addresses, it becomes apparent that Bush is denying agent status to gays and lesbians, the very people directly affected by the rhetoric, which leads to a discussion of ethical theory in human communication studies, an assessment of Bush’s rhetoric in light of ethical theory, and suggestions for an alternative ethical framework for understanding the same-sex marriage rhetoric of President George W. Bush.

Author

• Veronica Koehn, University of Denver