The Democrat Party
Some advice for Dems: the GOP knows that you're not the "Democrat" party or the "Democrat National Committee." And, yes, Ken Mehlman's English teacher taught him when to use the suffix "ic."
When, say, President Bush refers to the opposition party as the "Democrat Party," Republicans know that it, in the words of one Dem who e-mailed us this morning, "pisses us off."
That's why they do it.
Because it irritates Dems. And because "Democrat" triggers more negative connotations than "Democratic."
Of course, when Mehlman addressed the NAACP in Milwaukee last July, he said "Democratic." That was one audience he didn't want to offend.
Can Dems call the GOP the "Republic Party?"
Sure, Dems can call the GOP the "Republic Party." But they would be idiotic to do so, because a member of the GOP is a "Republican," not a "Republic." If a member of the other party is called a "Democrat," then why shouldn't it be the "Democrat Party," if only for the sake of parallelism?
Of course Republican leaders who call the other party the "Democrat Party" are doing it to get under the skin of Democrats.
That said, the question is, WHY are some GOP leaders deliberately poking Democrats in the eye with a sharp stick?
Ronald Reagan, who won more crossover votes from Democrats in his winning presidential campaigns of 1980 and 1984 than any GOP leader in history, pointedly referred to his opponents' party as the "Democratic Party." His view was that he'd rather have them join him as often as possible, rather than draw sillly lines in the sand. In his mind -- and as a former Democrat himself he knew of what he said -- there just wasn't enough justification to say something solely for the purpose of angering the other party, especially if that served as a barrier to winning their votes.
Rove, Mehlman, et. al. should follow Reagan's example.
Sounds good to me.
How about Dems just start pronouncing GOP phonetically rather than saying the letters?
and of course, the Republicans continue to say "Democrat" because they know that nobody in the so-called liberal media will call them on how childish it is.
Since the Republican Party took the "ic" from Democratic, let the have it. Call them the "Republicanic" party.
What have the Dems on the hill done since January
besides looking for ways to get at the other party and the president/ Leahy is a joke and so is Reid- you kiss my vote good-bye next election-We made a mistake we thought we were making a change- Fool us once-!!!!
If I am not mistaken, I believe it was originally founded as the "National Democrat Party", so the usage is entirely correct.