"Democrat party" I have to ask

[underpants]

Is there something here that I am missing. I know it is wrong to say "Democrat party" instead of "Demcratic party" but is this just semantics or is there something in "Democrat" that I am missing?

Is it the "DemocRAT" part or something?

[trotsky]

1. I see it as two-fold:

One, to disassociate the party from the idea of Democracy.

Two, to make it sound a lot like "bureaucrat," which of course is a universally reviled term thanks to Reagan.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. That, and the snarl that it's always said with

There is no such thing as the "Democrat Party". It exists only the the Cons' minds.

[July]

20. Yep, that's reason #3: disrespect.

They're deciding what the party is called, instead of abiding by the party's own choice.

Reason #4: making the party's name sound funny, or funnier. Akin to making the estate tax sound worse by referring to it as the "death tax," or making late abortion sound worse by calling it "partial birth abortion."

They're all about the perception games, which is the only thing they've shown some skill in managing. Real competence would be refreshing, wouldn't it?

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. I'd like to think it is more mundane than that

In the neo-con world of "I don't want to have to think"....

A Republican is a member of the Republican Party.
A Democrat is a member of the Democrat Party.

According to them, the Democratic Party would be made up of Democratics.

[tridim]

5. It's not mundane, it's a Rushism/Freeperism and now a standard for the worst Repukes..

in Congress. The worst offenders always emphasize "RAT" at the end of the word. They think it's very clever, like the average kindergartener would.

[Richardo]

6. ...and the President.

He's let loose with the 'D' bomb a number of times.

Tool.

[spag68]

4. IMHO

It's bogus that anyone should be so thin skinned as to take that to heart. If you must play the game, call them Republicant's or something else, equally as juvenile. I think that even the most undereducated or unsophisticated people are catching on to the game of wordplay used by the republicans, or maybe i'm just optimistic.

[rock]

7. Well it may be as simple as

the name of the party is "the Democratic Party" and is technically exact. The phrase "Democrat Party" means the party that bears some sort of connection to Democrats. This is a looser expression and open to a wider range of meanings. And it's just a general description.

[cmd]

8. It's also a regional thing

The awning over our HQ door has DEMOCRAT PARTY in big white letters. The people in our area have always called it the Democrat party.
I can't freak out over it like some people do. There are bigger fish to fry.

[kath]

25. whoa. What region is that??

[cmd]

27. SE Ohio n/t

[wyldwolf]

9. Here is the origin of this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2823666&mesg_id=2823666

[wyldwolf]

11. ..and still more history...

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001565.html

[ShortnFiery]

12. Yes, the RW Republicans are STILL actively trying to change our language.

Even Wolfie slipped up when the barrage of DemocRAT Party was being slung around fast and furious. However, anyone with a modicum of objectiveness knows to refer to our party as "The Democratic Party."

The non-ideologues in the M$M have taken caution not to slip up since the November election. Thank Heavens we won both houses or else they may have been successful at forcing this term not all that different as the word "Liberal" has been demonized over the past couple of decades by --> who else? = the right wing Republicans.

[underpants]

16. Thanks

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

10. It is wrong to call it the Democrat Party for the simple reason that

THAT'S NOT THE NAME. It's DEMOCRATIC Party.

And besides, it's a deliberate slight to knowingly and repeatedly call someone by the wrong name when you know the correct name. It's an insult, and done as part of the Repub's power trip.

[ClassWarrior]

13. It's just Rape-Publicans playing infantile games.

The kind calculated to get your goat. Don't give 'em the power. Just laugh at 'em and let 'em sound stupid.

NGU.

[kentuck]

14. I got this from a Google search:

<snip>
Although the name "Democratic party" was adopted during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), Democrats trace their origins to the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792,<3> making it the oldest political party in the world.<4> Since William Jennings Bryan's takeover of the party in 1896, it has positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party in economic matters. The pro-working class, activist philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, called "liberalism" in the U.S., has shaped much of the party's agenda since 1932. During the Fifth Party System Roosevelt's New Deal coalition usually controlled the national government through 1964. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, championed by the party despite opposition at the time from its conservative Southern wing, has continued to inspire the party's liberal principles. The Vietnam War in the 1960s opened a split on foreign military intervention that persists into the 21st century.

Since the 1990s and the shift towards the political strategy of triangulation employed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party has become less ideologically uniform and more centrist in the American political spectrum as it attempts to expand its appeal to Republican electorates.

Ideological base

Since the 1890s, the Democratic party has favored "liberal" positions. (The term "liberal" in this sense dates from the New Deal era.) The party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. In foreign policy, internationalism (including interventionism) was a dominant theme from 1913 to the mid 1960s. In the 1930s, the party began advocating welfare spending programs targeted at the poor. The party had a pro-business wing, typified by Al Smith, that shrank in the 1930s. The Southern conservative wing shrank in the 1980s. The major influences for liberalism were the labor unions (which peaked in the 1936-1952 era), and the African American wing, which has steadily grown since the 1960s.<5> Since the 1970s, environmentalism has been a major new component.

In recent decades, the party advocates civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, fiscal responsibility, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention (what economists call a mixed-economy). The party believes that government should play a role in alleviating poverty and social injustice, even if that means a larger role for government and progressive taxation to pay for social services

[underpants]

18. Sounds good

where to I sign up?

[T Wolf]

15. Using the noun form as an adjective is obviously meant as a slur.

To understand, substitute the words Jew and Jewish.

"John is a member of a JEWISH group" simply and unjudgementally describes John's affiliation.

In contrast,

"John is a member of a JEW group" clearly is derogatory.

Of course the pukes are bigotted. And unashamed to pronounce their bigotry.

[Allyoop]

19. Much ado about nothing IMO

New diary today entitled Senate Passes Democrats' Ethics Bill. Should that read Democratics' Ethics Bill?

Our headquarters sign read "Democrat Headquarters". I just don't see getting your panties in a wad over this. IMO, the more they see Democrats reacting , they more they'll use the same wording. How in the world do you propose to force them to always say Democratic? What the hell is derogatory about Democrat? Sounds whiney to me! Did big kids (or your siblings) tease you with bad names when you were a kid? Did whining make it go away? Bigger fish to fry!

[July]

21. Simple grammar here.

The diary title is correct. "Democrat" is not derogatory, nor is "Democratic," but intentional misuse of the terms is both poor grammar and conscious disrespect.

We can't MAKE them use the words correctly, but we can call attention to it. It is an intentional verbal slap when used by Republican members of Congress, Bush, and Limbaugh and his ilk.

We can handle both big and small issues here, but I do view calling someone by the wrong name as insulting. If someone constantly mispronounced your name, called you Maggie instead of Margaret, or insisted that a married woman who uses the name she was born with be called Mrs. Husband's-Name, you might get annoyed after a while, especially if you had pointed out to them what your name actually was.

[montieg]

17. The most recent manifestation of this slurring

(and I REALLY like T Wolf's analogy)began in 1992-3 with Newt Gingrich's little booklet, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control". He made lists of words--with Frank Luntz's tutelage, positive about repugs and negative about Dems. Almost overnight even the MSM began using them, including this particular one. Gingrich and Luntz are evil bastards, but we Dems learn quickly. Go see The Rockridge Institute:
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/

[caledesi]

22. It is purposefully an epithet. I am frustrated bec the Repubs have

never been CORRECTED. The Dems should interrupt and correct them non-stop. If they continue to let the repubs use this I think we should change our name. Progressive Party?

Democrat - Noun
Democratic - Adjective

[Bucky]

23. No the "Rat" thing doesn't register verbally. It's just that "those Democrats" is a phrase in smears

It's a cultivated word association (don't think they don't focus group test these things) with those zany owl-coddling, ozone-hugging, San Francisco high tax liberals. The word "Democratic" has positive associations ("rule by the people") and they're trying to imply our positions are not about the people but about the taxes and the zany protect-the-owl schemes.

Over time, this kind of smear-by-word starts to take on a life of its own. That's the semantics of propaganda. But don't freak on it: we do propagandistic fine-tuning too (saying "working class" instead of "lower class" or "poor"; saying "right to choose" instead of "pro-abortion rights"; or saying "like Mussolini" instead of, I dunno, are there any more extreme fascists that Bush gets compared to?)

[Dinger]

24. Here's A Good Article On This By Ruth Marcus:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101223.html

One Syllable of Civility
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; Page A21


If he wanted to, President Bush could change the tone in Washington with a single syllable: He could just say "ic." That is, he could stop referring to the opposition as the "Democrat Party" and call the other side, as it prefers, the Democratic Party.

The derisive use of "Democrat" in this way was a Bush staple during the recent campaign. "There are people in the Democrat Party who think they can spend your money far better than you can," he would say in his stump speech, or, "Raising taxes is a Democrat idea of growing the economy," or, "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses." . . .

[kath]

26. Good New Yorker article on the subject ;

The "ic" factor
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060807ta_talk_hertzberg

[Trajan]

28. I dont worry myself about that stuff ....

Instead, I ask how that Bush war is going ....