Why Is Saying "The Democrat ______" Insulting?

[iamjoy]

I know I have seen people on the board posting that to refer to (for example) Barbara Boxer as the Democrat Sentaor rather than a Democrat or the Democratic Senator is somehow insulting or perjorative. Why?

Looking at Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it would seem the only thing people doing this are guilty of is poor grammar (Democrat is a noun, the proper adjective form is Democratic. Republican can be used as a noun or adjective).

So, what gives?

[grytpype]

1. Because "Democrat" is what the wingnuts say.

Why is n*gger an insult when a Klansman says it? Same thing.

[faithfulcitizen]

22. it's insulting when anyone says that word.

[niceypoo]

24. Who cares what wingnuts say.....

I don't let whatever they say or think affect me.

[CarbonDate]

2. My best guess....

...is that that's how freepers refer to us, which, by default, means it's an insult.

[iamjoy]

3. Like Liberal Is An Insult"

It seems to me that when Freepers and the like refer to the Democrat person, etc. they are only showing their own ignorance. Why should we be any more insulted by that than if they used unique with a modifier or "real" as an adverb?

[Captain Hilts]

13. Republican pollster Lance Tarrance started the expression.

Not as a compliment.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. It's been a right wing campaign for years

to refer to the "Democrat Senator," the "Democrat Party," etc.

It's their snide, childish way to suggest "They're not democratic," as they have been told by their god, OxyContin Rush.

What is more digusting is that "journalists" don't call them on it. They know exactly what the Republicans are up to.

[Captain Hilts]

14. Even the Guardian uses the expression. I've e-mailed them a lot about it.

[Igel]

5. This comes up from time to time.

People assume that only republicans make the noun into an adjective.

People also assume that in the phrase "democrat senator" 'democrat' is a noun. It's an adjective, or forms a compound noun (the distinction is formal and pretty much useless in many cases). Consider "The IBM computer operating system manual binding is falling apart." Presumably 'binding' is the only real noun in the sentence. But nobody's going to take me to task for using IBM as an adjective. I use 'Democrat' because sometimes I prefer to keep the party away from the usual adjective; either I don't think that the party's position is overwhelmingly democratic, or the republican position is no less so. (I'm obviously not a "my party must always be right ... by definition" partisan.)

In other words, a "Democrat talking point" is a "Democratic talking point" but may not necessarily be a "democratic talking point" (whatever that would be), and it's handy to have a way of distinguishing the two in speech. Personally, I avoid "Democrat senator" because "Democratic senator" is pretty much unambiguous.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

I often say "Democrat {some noun}". I hate it when entities grab words

For example, I never refer to the first page or home page of a web site as the front page because microVirusSoft has a program by that name.

"Democratic" is an adjective that belongs to all people, not one party. Same thing goes for "republican". People have gotten so sloppy with writing and so proud of being sloppy, that they won't notice if those two words adjectives are capitalized or not.

"Democrat" only becomes an insult if you capitalize the "r".

But in fact, attempted insults are only insults if you accept them. Don't be overly sensitive. "Democrat" is not an insult.

[housewolf]

6. It's a Newt Gingrich construction...

one of those right-wing "frames" to dis-empower the Democratic Party. The Republicans like to refer to themselves as "small d democrats" and they love to use the terms democracy and democrataic (as in process). By reframing the Democrats to the Democrat Party rather than the Democratic Party, they create separation between the big-D Party and other words related to democratic, democracy, etc.

That's one objection to the use of the term, the fact that it's something the Repubs try to impose on our language.

Another objection is that it is terribly improper English. The word Democrat is a noun (as you noted), as all the other -crat words are. The word Democratic is an adjective. The two are not interchangable. The word "Republican" is both a noun and an adjective so it can be used interchangably.

[mitchtv]

9. I kind of like Republic party

why not?

[NWHarkness]

7. It's not our name, simple as that.

Refusing to refer to us by our proper name is deliberately disrespectful.

[Neil Lisst]

8. It's crap!

It's just old school GOP snittiness.

As in THE DEMOCRAT (HRMPH!) Party!!


It's their way of NOT calling us the DemocratIC party.


Like the Texas Aggies calling UT TU. Why? because they're idiots.

-----------
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[kentuck]

10. Just keep saying Democratic...

at every opportuntiy. It will drive them nuts.

[ashling]

11. Long a perjorative use by right wing

Looking at Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it would seem the only thing people doing this are guilty of is poor grammar (Democrat is a noun, the proper adjective form is Democratic. Republican can be used as a noun or adjective).


Websters is not Emily Post.

The party is oficially called "The Democratic Party." Etiquette would call for members of the other party to refer to our party by its proper name. I first recall tthis insulting behavior by Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater in 1964 at the Republican National Convention. Goldwater would spit ou "The DEMOCRAT party" in a very perjorative way in an erstwhile attempt to deny us any claim to being democratic.

To be "democratic," is to be patriotic - and God knows they don't want to admit that we are patriots.

Language is a powerful thing. This is but one example of how they have tried to make the language theirs and define us through their use of it. Newt Gingrich was a master at it, but he didn't invent the it by a long shot.

[iamjoy]

16. Etiquette: Pro-Life?

I mean, to that point that it is rude to call us by something other than our proper name, how many people on this board have ever referred to "Pro-Life" as "Anti-Choice"? I admit, I struggle with this one, even as I hate being called "Pro Abortion" instead of "Pro Choice" especially, well, we aren't going to rehash all of those arguments here.

[ashling]

21. As has been said here by others,

the insult is in the INTENT.

My Emily Post and Etiquette refeerence was really to refute the idea that Websters was an adequate guide to the intent of the insult.

As to the other, really an apples/oranges kind of thing.
"The Democratic Party" os a chartered organization with a long history.
I, for one, don't intend to rehash the pro -Life issue here.

The insult is in the intent, but more than that, it is an insult how they claim ownership of the language.

[Captain Hilts]

12. Republicans don't like to think of the DemocratIC party being DemocratIC

[bluedawg12]

15. Democrats belong to the Democratic party-with pride.

Rather be a Democrat than a neoconnie.

[Pepperbelly]

17. Because it is INTENDED as an insult.

And intent does indeed make up a big part of an insult.

[rhett o rick]

18. Agree, but accepting the insult is the biggest part. The Brits tried to

insult the young colonists by calling them yankees, but it wasn't effective because the "yankees" didn't accept it as an insult. Insults are intended to deflect us from our objective. Nothing constructive happens while we are busy insulting each other.
Stupid neocons. (Them, not you)

[Eric J in MN]

19. It's like calling Jewish lawyer a "Jew lawyer."

nt

[1932]

20. Becuase "democratic" is a good thing. "Democrat" not only doesn't

invoke the deeply important American value of "democracy", if you say it a certain way, it sounds like Democrap.

[jonnyblitz]

23. I am glad you asked this. I could never understand the big deal

either. I thought it was much ,much ado about nothing,just silly nitpicking over semantics but, apparently not, after reading the responses.

[meow2u3]

25. It's the insulting, nasty tone that accompanies it

When the repunks say "the Democrat Party", they put the emphasis on the last three letters, replete with a evil inflection to their voice--as if Satan himself uttered it--as if we were the rats instead of the ratpublicans.