Ic.

New rule: Anybody who refers to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Party” is either ignorant or rude, and will be treated accordingly from here on out.

This bastardization of the name comes from the wordsmiths of the Republican Party, who find that people really like the word “democratic,” but “democrat” is seem in a less-universally-positive light. So they’ve told their worker bees to refer to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Party.” (These are the same people who find that people really don’t like the word “war,” so they substitute other words, like “freedom.” This is like asking a child if they want chocolate, and interpreting their affirmative response to mean that, yes, they would like to be dropped into a pit of alligators.) Now, I don’t call Republicans “GOoPers,” like some of my fellow progressives, and I don’t call President Bush “Resident Bush.” That’s because it’s rude to call somebody by a name other than what their name is. I don’t appreciate people calling my party by the wrong name. Democrat Party? I mean, it’s not even grammatically correct.

You want to talk to me, you use my name. You want to talk about my party, you use my party’s name. Or don’t, and I’ll chalk you up as, at best, uncivilized, and encourage others to do the same. At worst, I’ll start being rude, too, and come up with nicknames for the Ublican Party. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

5 replies on “Ic.”

  1. The immaturity that the major parties put off sometimes is a bit annoying. Although, being more liberal than most, I notice the Republicans’ transgressions more often than I do the Democrats’. I’ve noticed that I haven’t paid as much attention to politics since Bush got re-elected; I guess I’m depressed and worn out about it. As harsh as I’d like to be, it’s easy to just blow off shit like this now. I admire your energy. ;)

  2. Well said Waldo.
    To illustrate how pervasive the bastardization of “Democratic Party” actually is, last year I noticed on the State of Virginia official elecion results web page that the vote counts were divided into Republican Party and Democrat Party. Being extremely annoyed by this, I wrote our Governor who immediately had it corrected and who also said that it would never happen again on his watch.
    People who should know better, people who are very active volunteer leaders use “Democrat Party” all the time. Without creating a fuss, I try to make it a point to use “Democratic Party” often in their presence. Many just don’t catch on. So is it rude to correct such well meaning people?
    Those Mepublican think-tankers are always ten steps ahead of us. :-)

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