Rhetorical "Mosaicism" and Intractable Conflict: George W. Bush on Stem Cells

President Bush's 2001 speech on stem cell research showed unusual intermixing of
rhetorical bits from past arguments of proponents and opponents, suggesting that such
mixing is a distinct rhetorical strategy. Analyses revealed two communities that had
engaged each other over reproductive biology issues for decades, developing distinct
vocabularies and argumentative patterns in that interaction. The speech mixed
fragments ofthese usages. Traditional textual analyses and analyses ofthe mixing
itself showed that the mixing seems to reinforce traditional approaches to divided
audiences by opening up many possibilities for the communities to draw different
meanings from what is said. Analyses of responses to the speech showed such split
understandings, and followup analyses to 2007 suggest that the speech helped freeze
the character of the debate in the form Bush gave it. Mixing is a viable rhetorical
strategy to help manage intractable issues with deeply divided audiences.