The strangest insult in US politics:...'the Democrat party'

[FunkyZero]

They get riled about the most stupid things. simple minds are easy to steer I recon

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219423788

Ponietz (3,232 posts)
Thu Sep 5, 2024, 11:01 PM

The strangest insult in US politics: why do Republicans call it 'the Democrat party'?

The Democratic party? Robert F Kennedy Jr’s never heard of it.

On Tuesday, the former presidential candidate issued his latest condemnation of the “Democrat party”, endorsing a bizarre linguistic tradition among haters of the institution. As Donald Trump told a rally in 2018: “I call it the Democrat party. It sounds better rhetorically.” By “better”, of course, he meant “worse”, as he explained the next year: he prefers to say “the ‘Democrat party’ because it doesn’t sound good”.

In removing two letters from “Democratic”, the former president is adopting a jibe that’s been around since at least the 1940s. Opponents of the party long ago decided, for some reason, that this brutal act of syllabic denial would shame their opponents. Democrats don’t seem particularly devastated by the attack, but Republicans and those who love them have stuck with it. We hear it regularly from party luminaries such as JD Vance, Mike Johnson and Nikki Haley; pragmatic independents like RFK Jr; and media voices across the vast spectrum from Fox News to Infowars. Last week, even Tulsi Gabbard, once a Democratic presidential candidate herself, wrote an op-ed proudly describing her departure from the Democrat party and support for Trump.

But even if the misnaming doesn’t exactly leave liberal snowflakes in tears, it does serve a purpose, says Nicole Holliday, acting associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. It’s a marker of affiliation – an indicator of the media a person consumes and the politicians they listen to. She recently heard a friend remark on “Democrat party” policies and asked why they used the term; the friend wasn’t even aware they had done it. “Language is contagious, especially emotionally charged political language,” Holliday says. “Most of the time, we don’t have the cognitive bandwidth to think very hard about every single word that we’re using. We just use it because it’s what other people do.”

That lack of awareness “shows how normalized it’s become”, says Larry Glickman, Stephen and Evalyn Milman professor in American studies at Cornell University, who likens the term to a “schoolyard taunt”. It suggests the party is “outside the mainstream of American politics so much so that we’re not even going to call them by the name they prefer. We refuse to give them that amount of respect.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/05/democrat-party-republicans

Repubes works for me.

onecaliberal (34,908 posts)
1. I call them recons. It's what they are.

diane in sf (4,012 posts)
2. Repugs, they're repugnant.

Enter stage left (3,620 posts)
4. Respond to them as the "Repugnant Party".
Reply to Ponietz (Original post)
Thu Sep 5, 2024, 11:15 PM
See how they like that.

malaise (274,577 posts)
14. I detest it
Reply to Ponietz (Original post)
Fri Sep 6, 2024, 11:11 AM
By the way M$Greedia hacks often use it and rarely correct ReTHUGs.
Dems should do way more to stop this shit.

"DON'T CALL ME NAMES!  POOPOO HEAD!"

Too DUmb to even realize the irony OR how susceptible they are to even the simplest troll.

[Ralph Wiggum]

More liberal Democrat butt-hurt over language!!!

[SVPete]

I have no problem seeing how Repubes, recons, Repugs, Repugnant Party, and ReTHUGs are immature-12YO-grade playground insults, but how exactly is "Democrat Party" an insult?

[FlippyDoo]

It's hilarious to me that a group of DUmbass who claim to be so smart gets the vapors over something so stupid, but let's look at things...

Republicans are members of the Republican Party.
Libertarians are members of the Libertartian Party.
Communists are members of the Communist Party.

With the above in mind, wouldn't it seem sensible to anyone with a brain that Democrats are members of the Democrat Party? Of course, I can understand sane, normal people wanting to say "ick!" any time they encounter a democrat so maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe the DUers still have a tiny, microscopic part of themselves hidden deep inside that is sane and normal that is subconsciously pushing the "ick" forward.

[ADsOutburst]

I see they are continuing the Democrat… oops, Democratic Party tradition of using a lot of words to explain very little.

[jukin]

There is nothing, not one thing, about the democrat party that is democratic. The elite coup of Pedo Joe for QueMala puts the exclamation point on that.

[ADsOutburst]

Strange insult indeed...

As in, strange that democrats consider it an insult at all.

[Old n Grumpy]

Republicans are members of the Republican Party.
Libertarians are members of the Libertartian Party.
Democrats are members of the Communist party .
Communists are members of the democratic party
Socialists are members of the Democratic Party

Fixed it

[DefiantSix]

Republicans are members of the Republican Party.
Libertarians are members of the Libertartian Party.
Democrats are members of the Communist party .
Communists are members of the democratic party
Socialists are members of the Democratic Party

Fixed it

Steel on target, OnG.

[BamaMoose]

The article is absolutely hilarious.  It's almost like someone is trying to write a satirical story without betraying the fact that it's a joke.

In removing two letters from “Democratic”, the former president is adopting a jibe that’s been around since at least the 1940s.

So, the term Democrat Party has been around almost 100 years, and they still get all butt hurt over it.  That's a serious multi-generational amount of boo-hooing and feeling of victimhood.  But the article goes on to explain that it's no big deal:

Democrats don’t seem particularly devastated by the attack

Umm, then why are you writing a whole article about it?  And why does your target audience go into meltdowns whenever anyone refers to the "Democrat Party"?  Perhaps it does actually "leave liberal snowflakes in tears".  Otherwise, why would they react so strongly?

I never even knew it was considered some huge insult until I started reading DU.  But since they showed just how much it bothered them, I look for examples of them freaking out over it.  Every time I see someone having a hissy fit over seeing Democrat being utilized, I have a good laugh over their impotent rage.