Check around with your Democratic friends, see how they feel about their party being referred to as the Democrat Party or their leaders being referred to as Democrat leaders.
Surprising to see that one claiming to be a supporter of the Democratic Party isn't aware of this.
Excerpt from my (epithet) link:
The term Democrat Party is an epithet for the Democratic Party of the United States,[3][4][5] used disparagingly by the party's opponents.[6] The following appeared in The New York Times in 1984:
The term 'Democrat Party' has been used in recent years by some right-wing Republicans on the ground that the term used by Democrats implies that they are the only true adherents of democracy.[7]
Language expert Roy Copperud said it was used by Republicans who disliked the implication that Democratic Party implied to listeners that Democrats "are somehow the anointed custodians of the concept of democracy".[8] According to Oxford Dictionaries, the use of Democrat rather than the adjective Democratic
is in keeping with a longstanding tradition among Republicans of dropping the –ic in order to maintain a distinction from the broader, positive associations of the adjective democratic with democracy and egalitarianism.[9]
Political commentator William Safire wrote in 1993 that the Democrat of Democrat Party "does conveniently rhyme with autocrat, plutocrat, and worst of all, bureaucrat".[10] Hendrik Hertzberg writes in The New Yorker:
There’s no great mystery about the motives behind this deliberate misnaming. 'Democrat Party' is a slur, or intended to be—a handy way to express contempt. Aesthetic judgments are subjective, of course, but 'Democrat Party' is jarring verging on ugly. It fairly screams 'rat'.[11]
Pollster Frank Luntz tested the phrase with a focus group in 2001, and concluded that the only people who really disliked the epithet were highly partisan Democrats.[12] Political analyst Charlie Cook attributed modern use of the term to force of habit rather than a deliberate epithet by Republicans.[13] Journalist Ruth Marcus stated that Republicans likely only continue to employ the term because Democrats dislike it,[3] and Hertzberg calls use of the term "a minor irritation" and also "the partisan equivalent of flashing a gang sign".[11]
= new reply since forum marked as read
