A couple of years ago I noticed something that, I believe, Rush Limbaugh started as I heard it there first and not again for quite some time. Now I notice it leaking out all over the spectrum.
The term I’m speaking of is referring to the party on the Left as “the Democrat party” instead of the term they use to describe themselves, “the Democratic party.”
The interesting thing about it was the way in which Limbaugh used it. He would emphasize the term in a way that turned it into a snide, back-handed way to insult the party. Over time the phrase started getting picked up by the rest of the pundits. I noticed Ann Coulter using it and then Sean Hannity and so forth.
Well, someone finally called the Right on this last night. Chris Matthews was talking about the budget and had Republican California Congressman Darrell Issa on as a guest and when he used the term in a long answer Matthews followed up by calling him on it. He made no bones about it and told Issa to save that sort of “Mickey Mouse” insult for stump speeches.
I was finally glad to see someone call this for what it is. The Right is masterful at setting the terminology of the political landscape. They know how to use a term endlessly until it becomes the norm. They’ve done it time and again.
The odd part regarding this one is that, it seems to me, that “the Democrat party” is actually more accurate than the actual phrase. If Republicans are in the Republican party shouldn’t Democrats be in the Democrat party? Senator Barney Frank, who was the other guest on the show, chided Issa by feigning support of the term from his friend in the “Republicanistic party”.
I suspect Limbaugh realized that the Democrats were getting a subliminal free right by having it associated with “democratic”. That, of course, somewhat suggests that Republicans aren’t very democratic.
The bottom line is that the organization is called “The Democratic Party” and that’s what they should be called. Calling them anything else is simply an insult and it is about time someone got annoyed by this.
