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> He was a small-d democrat. His best friend was a small-r republican. Uh, that's not what those mean, unless your father was a monarchist and his friend a bel
by monadgonad 8y ago
> He was a small-d democrat. His best friend was a small-r republican.
Uh, that's not what those mean, unless your father was a monarchist and his friend a believer in dictatorships?
"Small-p Partyname" is used to differentiate the actual word that the party's name is from the proper noun. A small-c conservative is someone who holds conservative beliefs, regardless of whether they support a Conservative party.
- Baeocystin 8y agoThe common usage is to indicate that while a person has a political preference, the party per se is not the important aspect of their politics.
- dllthomas 8y agoIn my experience, the other guy has it right: "Small-d democrat" means someone who supports democracy (... enough compared to some base line in whatever context that it's worth discussing), not someone who weakly endorses the Democratic party. A small-d democrat may be an avid big-D Democrat, or a weak one, or not one at all. I'm sure a big portion of the Republican party are small-d democrats when the alternative is monarchism.