Democrat or Democratic?

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Philothea53

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I am so tired of hearing the non-Republican party, the other major party in our country, being called Democratic instead of Democrat - consistently! It gets used as an adjective instead of part of the name by every newscaster I watch and in most articles I read. I think this is accidental (out of ignorance) rather than purposeful, but I believe it gives a subliminal message about the DEMOCRAT Party that some of us vehemently disagree with. Any thoughts?
 
I hadn’t noticed that but it is interesting. Sounds as though those who are calling it Democratic are putting down the other party. Guess they mean that the opposing party is non-democratic. I’ll have to start listening more closely to the news casts.
 
Either term can be correct depending on whether you’re using it as a noun or an adjective.

Hillary Clinton is a Democrat.

Hillary Clinton hopes to be the Democratic nominee for President.

I’ve occasionally heard “Democrat” used the wrong way around, perhaps intentionally. Wikipedia has an article that starts out: "Democrat Party is a political epithet used in the United States by some conservative commentators and by some members of the Republican Party in speeches and press releases instead of the name (or more precisely, the proper noun) Democratic Party.

Many members of the Democratic Party object to the term. New Yorker commentator Hendrik Hertzberg wrote: “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.’”[1]
 
Philothea53 said:
I am so tired of hearing the non-Republican party, the other major party in our country, being called Democratic instead of Democrat - consistently! It gets used as an adjective instead of part of the name by every newscaster I watch and in most articles I read. I think this is accidental (out of ignorance) rather than purposeful, but I believe it gives a subliminal message about the DEMOCRAT Party that some of us vehemently disagree with. Any thoughts?
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Your use of the term “Democrat Party” is considered, and generally intended, as a slur. And unless it’s changed, using names incorrectly has long been considered a violation of the Forum rules and that appears to be what you are doing.

The Democratic Party calls itself the Democratic Party and that’s all that matters. It’s their official name and that’s why the media uses it. It’s on all the stationary and it matters not at all whether or not you like it.

Whenever I hear someone on use that term, I shake my head at how juvenile they sound. Even more so to complain about it.
 
Thekla said:
Your use of the term “Democrat Party” is considered, and generally intended, as a slur. And unless it’s changed, using names incorrectly has long been considered a violation of the Forum rules and that appears to be what you are doing.

The Democratic Party calls itself the Democratic Party and that’s all that matters. It’s their official name and that’s why the media uses it. It’s on all the stationary and it matters not at all whether or not you like it.

Whenever I hear someone on use that term, I shake my head at how juvenile they sound. Even more so to complain about it.
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It doesn’t matter whether I like it or not? Of course it matters, just as it matters that you disagree with me. It is rather juvenile to assume that one must just accept and be done with anything/everything that some else says or believes in just because they believe it to be proper or true. Do you accept the term ‘pro-choice’ and accept that even though we know the truth is that the persons who use that term are actually pro-abortion all the way to the bank?
 
Philothea53 said:
It doesn’t matter whether I like it or not? Of course it matters, just as it matters that you disagree with me.
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Right. It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not; it is the official name of the “Democratic Party.” There’s no one side or the other side. There’s no disagreement. One name is the official name of the Party and the other is a intended as a slur.

We have been instructed multiple times to not change or create forms of official names; it simply promotes name-calling.
 
Thekla said:
Right. It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not; it is the official name of the “Democratic Party.” There’s no one side or the other side. There’s no disagreement. One name is the official name of the Party and the other is a intended as a slur.

We have been instructed multiple times to not change or create forms of official names; it simply promotes name-calling.
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No. You have taken this in a direction that I did not intend. I am not changing their name - I am saying that I dislike it and I cringe everytime I hear it said that way because I believe it to be in error. I do not agree that they are the democratic party. I do not believe them to be democratic at all. The instruction we have received is to not change names - I have not changed names. The purpose of this forum is to discuss thoughts and beliefs about various topics. THAT is what I am doing. So again I disagree with you that it doesn’t matter what I think about it. It matters completely. I guess as much as your right to put a spin on the topic that wasn’t intended.
 
Leopard said:
That’s what they call themselves because that’s what the name of the organization is.
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Again, what is your point? I never questioned that they call themselves that. You have not discussed my original post at all. I was hoping for discussion. I must have come to the wrong place.
 
Philothea53 said:
Again, what is your poing. I never questioned that they call themselves that. You have not discussed my original post at all. I was hoping for discussion. I must have come to the wrong place.
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Okay, let’s go back to the beginning and look at the original post:

Philothea53 said:
I am so tired of hearing the non-Republican party, the other major party in our country, being called Democratic instead of Democrat - consistently! It gets used as an adjective instead of part of the name by every newscaster I watch and in most articles I read. I think this is accidental (out of ignorance) rather than purposeful, but I believe it gives a subliminal message about the DEMOCRAT Party that some of us vehemently disagree with. Any thoughts?
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I am discussing the portion I highlighted in bold:

That’s what they call themselves because that’s what the name of the organization is.
 
Since this was a duplicate thread, I’ll repost what I stated in the one that was closed, although most of these points have already been made by others now.
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philothea53:
I am so tired of hearing the non-Republican party, the other major party in our country, being called Democratic instead of Democrat - consistently! It gets used as an adjective instead of part of the name by every newscaster I watch and in most articles I read. I think this is accidental (out of ignorance) rather than purposeful, but I believe it gives a subliminal message about the DEMOCRAT Party that some of us vehemently disagree with. Any thoughts?
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  1. *]It is purposeful; the announcers do it because it is correct. Democrat is the noun, Democratic is the adjective.
    *]Some talk radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh like to speak of the “Democrat Party” or a “Democrat bill” as a way to mock the party’s pretensions. He knows it’s not grammatically correct, he’s just using wordplay to make the point that he doesn’t believe they are democratic at all.
    *]On this message board, mangling a party’s name to make a point is against the rules, but I think we can charitably assume most posters who refer to the “Democrat Party” or a “Democrat proposal” don’t realize it’s incorrect, and so are mangling it unintentionally.
    Since I posted that, you appear to be taking the thread in another direction, namely “Is the Democratic Party or its ideology truly democratic?” As Thekla pointed out, that’s irrelevant to the question your OP appears to raise. You can disagree whether Voice of the Faithful really represents the faithful, or whether the People’s Republic of China is properly a republic, or represents the Chinese people, but it is still proper to use those names to refer to them, or non-disparaging abbreviations like VOF and PRC.

    The adjective form doesn’t really compare well in those two examples, but the principle is the same.
 
Philothea53 said:
I do not believe them to be democratic at all. The instruction we have received is to not change names - I have not changed names.
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Not only did you change the name, you did it in capital letters when you wrote, “but I believe it gives a subliminal message about the DEMOCRAT Party…” Now you say that you didn’t do it?

If you think that they are not democratic, that’s one thing. But that’s not what you originally complained about when you said, “by every newscaster I watch and in most articles I read. I think this is accidental (out of ignorance) rather than purposeful…”

Of course it isn’t accidental and of course it’s done on purpose; it’s the official name of the party and use of the term “democrat party” is generally an intended slur. That’s why newscasters don’t use it and only the most partisan Republicans do. Get it? They do it to be purposefully uncharitable.
 
Philothea53 said:
Again, what is your point? I never questioned that they call themselves that. You have not discussed my original post at all. I was hoping for discussion. I must have come to the wrong place.
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I am not sure what there is to discuss. Is there a reason why you think we shouldn’t use the name that they use themselves?

It has been know as the Democratic Party for the past 35 years, at least (which is as far back as my political memories go). Calling it the “Democrat Party” is an innovation which I have only seen here in CAF. I don’t know if it is an intended insult, or if it is used due to a simple lack of knowledge. But it makes the user appear uneducated to me.
 
Dale_M said:
Calling it the “Democrat Party” is an innovation which I have only seen here in CAF.
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It’s not quite the innovation it might seem. From this article which I linked on the closed thread,
Hertzberg wrote that Republicans “as far back as the Harding Administration” have referred to the “Democrat Party,” including the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who “made it a regular part of his arsenal of insults,” and former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), who “denounced ‘Democrat wars’ … in his [1976] Vice-Presidential debate with [former Sen.] Walter Mondale [D-MN].”
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Dale_M:
I don’t know if it is an intended insult, or if it is used due to a simple lack of knowledge. But it makes the user appear uneducated to me.
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There may be a few who use it as an insult in violation of forum rules, but it is charitable to assume that most who use it are simply ignorant of proper usage. This is understandable, since most of us are first and foremost Catholics, while our amateur political punditry is secondary at best.
 
Philothea53 said:
Sure. That’s what they call themselves. Your point?

(Hmmmm - note the URL of the website that you provided.)
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Surely you realize that an organization, let alone one which raises funds and has to report to and comply with IRS guidelines, does not just call themselves anything they want when they want.

Democratic Party is the official name of the organization not only because they chose to refer to themselves that way but also because they filed legal documents claiming that name way back when. On all IRS and legal documents not including the ‘ic’ would make any documents fraudulent and/or null and void.

Note that the Republican party’s internet handle is GOP.org. Are you suggesting they are being intentionally fraudulent by not choosing their ‘official name’: Republican National Party for their website?

Here’s a simple way to determine the ‘real’ name of any fundraising organization: Click on the DONATE or CONTRIBUTE button and you will see the legal/official name of the organization in the fine print. For the GOP it’s: **Republican National Committee **(note that doesn’t look like G O P, so apparently the Republican Party goes by more than one name as it sees fit and somehow that doesn’t seem to bother you.) For the DNC it’s the Democratic National Committee.

Both sites offer “HISTORY” links if you really want to get into how long each party has opted to use one name over the other and when the OFFICIAL name was selected and registered with the government and corresponding agencies for legal purposes.
 
Digitonomy said:
There may be a few who use it as an insult in violation of forum rules, but it is charitable to assume that most who use it are simply ignorant of proper usage.
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It’s that ongoing question of whether or not ignorance is an excuse. For me, it’s too much of a stretch to believe that Americans, who have grown up in a nation of two political parties, simply make a mistake in the name of one of those parties.

Arguing over semantics and failing to admit a mistake tells me that people know exactly what they are saying and why they are saying it. I seem to recall a forum rule that forbids such “mistakes.”
 
Of course, Democrats could probably resolve this issue once and for all by insisting that their members be called not Democrats, but Democratics. 👍

Both parties like to present themselves in the best possible light. Most freedom-loving people would probably agree that a republic or a democracy (there is a difference) is a preferable form of government. I’m sure the Democrats prefer the term “Democratic Party” because someone thinks “the party that is democratic, the party of democracy, the party where all people have their voices heard, and where all people have a vote” when they hear the name. That’s probably why they chose that name instead of “the Democrat Party”.

I must admit I’m a little surprised that the Democratic Party have never really found an affectionate nickname for themselves. The Republicans have been known as the “Grand Old Party” for over 130 years now. It’s a cool, fun nickname.

On a final note, the Democrats really need to ditch the donkey as a symbol. To be fair, the Republicans didn’t pick the elephant themselves, but an elephant doesn’t invite the same level of mockery that a jack*** does.

Fair disclosure: I consider myself a Republican.
 
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