Memo to Republicans: Knock it off with the "Democrat Party" stuff

There was a time, not so long ago, when Republicans controlled the use of political language.

Phrase-meisters like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove rewrote the campaign dictionary, inventing terms like “flip-flopper” and defining into oblivion the term “liberal.”

(Back in the Fifties, even prominent Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower happily described themselves as “liberal.”)

These days, the GOP’s language control sounds less cunning and more desperate.

Case in point? Republicans refusing to use the term “Democratic Party.”

Apparently, they think it sounds like a confirmatory adjective. As in, “This is the party that is democratic.”

But there’s also a power-play involved. You literally control what your opponent is called.

And it’s also something of a code signal, sort of a verbal fist-bump.

Conservatives understand that by using this term, they’re lavishing derision and disrespect on the opposition.

(For a brief history of the use of “Democrat” Party as an epithet, check out Wikipedia’s entry. You’ll find that it was a favored tactic of Joseph McCarthy, among others.)

In my opinion, it’s churlish and petty.

If Democrats suddenly started describing Republicans as members of the “Republic Party” I’d dis that, too.

Naturally, there are limits to respecting other peoples’ names and titles. If someone asked to be called “The Better than Everybody Else Party” I’d resist.

But it’s a common courtesy in American society to use names and even honorifics that are standard usage.

When I meet a Roman Catholic priest, I call him “Father X,” even though I’m not a Catholic and he’s certainly not my father.

I’m also comfortable using the term “Grand Old Party,” an honorific commonly applied the Republicans.

This kind of respect is a first step toward more civility in American discourse. And fortunately, some Republicans get it.

Last August, the Republican platform committee voted to use the proper term in its official documents. This from the Associated Press:

“We probably should use what the actual name is,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the panel’s chairman. “At least in writing.”

In 1996, references to the Democratic Party were purged from a draft of the platform. As party leaders explained at the time, they wanted to make the subtle point that the Democratic Party had become elitist, no longer small-d democratic.

In the debate Tuesday, Jim Bopp of Indiana echoed that sentiment but said fair’s fair.

“We should afford them the respect that they are entitled and call them by their legal name.”