{"id":195,"date":"2008-10-31T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/10\/31\/memo-to-republicans-knock-it-off-with-the-democrat-party-stuff\/"},"modified":"2008-10-31T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T14:32:00","slug":"memo-to-republicans-knock-it-off-with-the-democrat-party-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/10\/31\/memo-to-republicans-knock-it-off-with-the-democrat-party-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Memo to Republicans: Knock it off with the "Democrat Party" stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time, not so long ago, when Republicans controlled the use of political language. <\/p>\n

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

(Back in the Fifties, even prominent Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower happily described themselves as “liberal.”)<\/p>\n

These days, the GOP’s language control sounds less cunning and more desperate.<\/p>\n

Case in point? Republicans refusing to use the term “Democratic Party.” <\/p>\n

Apparently, they think it sounds like a confirmatory adjective. As in, “This is the party that is democratic.”<\/p>\n

But there’s also a power-play involved. You literally control what your opponent is called.<\/p>\n

And it’s also something of a code signal, sort of a verbal fist-bump. <\/p>\n

Conservatives understand that by using this term, they’re lavishing derision and disrespect on the opposition. <\/p>\n

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

In my opinion, it’s churlish and petty. <\/p>\n

If Democrats suddenly started describing Republicans as members of the “Republic Party” I’d dis that, too.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But it’s a common courtesy in American society to use names and even honorifics that are standard usage.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I’m also comfortable using the term “Grand Old Party,” an honorific commonly applied the Republicans. <\/p>\n

This kind of respect is a first step toward more civility in American discourse. And fortunately, some Republicans get it.<\/p>\n

Last August, the Republican platform committee voted to use the proper term in its official documents. This from the Associated Press:<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

In the debate Tuesday, Jim Bopp of Indiana echoed that sentiment but said fair’s fair.<\/p>\n

“We should afford them the respect that they are entitled and call them by their legal name.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a time, not so long ago, when Republicans controlled the use of political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}