4 ms·

I'm confused - the Democrats/Democratic party uses "Democrat" extensively in their website. It it a noun vs adjective thing that I'm missing? https://democrats

I'm confused - the Democrats/Democratic party uses "Democrat" extensively in their website. It it a noun vs adjective thing that I'm missing? https://democrats.org/ https://democrats.org/

mikeyouse 7y ago
> It it a noun vs adjective thing that I'm missing? Yes, you'll notice they never use the singular "Democrat". They describe democrats, the Democratic party, etc. but only Republicans started using this bizarre "Democrat Party" or the "Democrat nominee" thing.
- sneakernets 7y ago
  It's a play on the last syllable resembling "rat", popularized by Rush Limbaugh's radio show. I do remember hearing "Republican'ts" and "rethuglicans" from dems but in my experience it's extremely rare.
  - burfog 7y ago
    I doubt anybody uses "democrat party" for reasons related to the demon-rat moniker. It seems to be more about disputing that the party is in fact democratic. Among other things, the superdelegates make this clear. It's also the matter of the party making a name-grab for democracy itself, which is a more valuable trademark than anything associated with the republic.
    - mikeyouse 7y ago
      > It seems to be more about disputing that the party is in fact democratic. Among other things, the superdelegates make this clear. It's also the matter of the party making a name-grab for democracy itself, which is a more valuable trademark than anything associated with the republic. Yes, I'm sure the pejorative use by Republicans of the term that Democrats use to refer to themselves is rooted in Republicans' sincere concern with the structure of the DNC's primary. That must be it. > burfog 19 hours ago | parent | flag | favorite | on: Iran attack: US airbases in Iraq hit by ballistic ... > Democrat voters may oppose war, but the same can not be said for democrat politicians. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21987859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21987859 Lol, come on man.
      - sneakernets 7y ago
        I do believe we hit a nerve... ;)
- SkyBelow 7y ago
  This confuses me. I've discussed politics for over 10 years online, both in very conservative forums and very liberal forums, and have never once seen a person mention this before. Sometimes I have even been on forums where name calling was quite direct. Yet I've never heard of this before. A quick google search shows a number of mentions, but it feels so odd that I could've missed this, especially since a person who isn't in the know can easily make the mistake of thinking Democrats belong to the Democrat Party. Has it historically not been an issue enough to call out? Is this only in some circles and not universally agreed upon? It just seems so odd for me to have missed this being a thing. It is like if one day someone told you 'fish' was a loaded negative term to refer to people who went to college.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    It's definitely an intentional thing among prominent Republicans, but especially the "Fox News" set.. like I doubt you'd see Justin Amash saying it, but the Devin Nunes's of the world love it; Here's a Twitter search for Trump with all the times he said "Democrat" singular, almost every occurrence is designed to be a pejorative: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3A%40realDonaldTrump%20democrat%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3A%40realDonaldTr... Or for Matt Gaetz: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40mattgaetz%20%22democrat%20%22%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40mattgaetz%20%22democr... Or Jim Jordan: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40Jim_Jordan%20%22democrat%20%22%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40Jim_Jordan%20%22democ... Edit: Apparently it made it to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)
    - TallGuyShort 7y ago
      Donald Trump speaks about Democrats in a pejorative manner. Sometimes it's even using "Democrat" as a noun in the grammatically correct way. Film at 11?
  - justincredible 7y ago
    > It is like if one day someone told you 'fish' was a loaded negative term to refer to people who went to college. It would probably be spelled "phish".
- comex 7y ago
  Nitpick: The singular “Democrat” is still standard if used as a noun, as in “Nancy Pelosi is a Democrat.” It’s only using it as an adjective that’s nonstandard.
abstractbarista 7y ago
I could see this being very confusing if you were a non-native English speaker. "Democratic" = OK. "He's a Democrat" = OK. "The Democrat party" = NOT OK. Hmmm...
- mywittyname 7y ago
  Nouns can't modify nouns like adjectives can, but they can be modified to be adjectives. Friend = OK Friendly = OK He's a friendly person = OK He's a friend person = NOT OK He's a friend = OK This should be something most speakers learn early, though, maybe they won't know all the rules for modification and will make up an incorrect adjective. I.e., He's a democratly person.
  - TallGuyShort 7y ago
    But if the phrase "friend person" caught on (similar to, I don't know, the phrase "my bad"), we wouldn't consider it a "secret handshake" or "dog whistle". Especially since "members of the Democratic party" generally consider Republicans to be less well educated on average. Ascribing this to some kind of intentional, coordinated malice in all cases seems ludicrous to me.
    - mikeyouse 7y ago
      It's obviously intentional coordinated malice.. this isn't new, it's been written about for decades: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/the-ic-factor https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/the-ic-factor Someone like US Senator Josh Hawley went to Stanford, then to Yale Law, he clerked on the US Appeals Court and then for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was then elected as the Attorney General of Missouri and won the race for US Senator in 2018. Do you honestly think he doesn't know the proper name of one of the two major parties in the USA, or the body that organizes their elections? It's not subtle. Just super juvenile 'own the libs' silliness. > Today on Fox & Friends Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the Democrat National Committee ... > “Essentially the Democrat Party bought themselves ... https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sen-hawley-democrats-bought-federal-investigation-trump-campaign https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sen-hawley-democrats-bought-fe...

I'm confused - the Democrats/Democratic party uses "Democrat" extensively in their website. It it a noun vs adjective thing that I'm missing? https://democrats.org/ https://democrats.org/

mikeyouse 7y ago

> It it a noun vs adjective thing that I'm missing? Yes, you'll notice they never use the singular "Democrat". They describe democrats, the Democratic party, etc. but only Republicans started using this bizarre "Democrat Party" or the "Democrat nominee" thing.

sneakernets 7y ago
It's a play on the last syllable resembling "rat", popularized by Rush Limbaugh's radio show. I do remember hearing "Republican'ts" and "rethuglicans" from dems but in my experience it's extremely rare.
- burfog 7y ago
  I doubt anybody uses "democrat party" for reasons related to the demon-rat moniker. It seems to be more about disputing that the party is in fact democratic. Among other things, the superdelegates make this clear. It's also the matter of the party making a name-grab for democracy itself, which is a more valuable trademark than anything associated with the republic.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    > It seems to be more about disputing that the party is in fact democratic. Among other things, the superdelegates make this clear. It's also the matter of the party making a name-grab for democracy itself, which is a more valuable trademark than anything associated with the republic. Yes, I'm sure the pejorative use by Republicans of the term that Democrats use to refer to themselves is rooted in Republicans' sincere concern with the structure of the DNC's primary. That must be it. > burfog 19 hours ago | parent | flag | favorite | on: Iran attack: US airbases in Iraq hit by ballistic ... > Democrat voters may oppose war, but the same can not be said for democrat politicians. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21987859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21987859 Lol, come on man.
    - sneakernets 7y ago
      I do believe we hit a nerve... ;)
SkyBelow 7y ago
This confuses me. I've discussed politics for over 10 years online, both in very conservative forums and very liberal forums, and have never once seen a person mention this before. Sometimes I have even been on forums where name calling was quite direct. Yet I've never heard of this before. A quick google search shows a number of mentions, but it feels so odd that I could've missed this, especially since a person who isn't in the know can easily make the mistake of thinking Democrats belong to the Democrat Party. Has it historically not been an issue enough to call out? Is this only in some circles and not universally agreed upon? It just seems so odd for me to have missed this being a thing. It is like if one day someone told you 'fish' was a loaded negative term to refer to people who went to college.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  It's definitely an intentional thing among prominent Republicans, but especially the "Fox News" set.. like I doubt you'd see Justin Amash saying it, but the Devin Nunes's of the world love it; Here's a Twitter search for Trump with all the times he said "Democrat" singular, almost every occurrence is designed to be a pejorative: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3A%40realDonaldTrump%20democrat%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=from%3A%40realDonaldTr... Or for Matt Gaetz: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40mattgaetz%20%22democrat%20%22%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40mattgaetz%20%22democr... Or Jim Jordan: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40Jim_Jordan%20%22democrat%20%22%20-democrats&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3A%40Jim_Jordan%20%22democ... Edit: Apparently it made it to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)
  - TallGuyShort 7y ago
    Donald Trump speaks about Democrats in a pejorative manner. Sometimes it's even using "Democrat" as a noun in the grammatically correct way. Film at 11?
- justincredible 7y ago
  > It is like if one day someone told you 'fish' was a loaded negative term to refer to people who went to college. It would probably be spelled "phish".
comex 7y ago
Nitpick: The singular “Democrat” is still standard if used as a noun, as in “Nancy Pelosi is a Democrat.” It’s only using it as an adjective that’s nonstandard.

abstractbarista 7y ago

I could see this being very confusing if you were a non-native English speaker. "Democratic" = OK. "He's a Democrat" = OK. "The Democrat party" = NOT OK. Hmmm...

mywittyname 7y ago
Nouns can't modify nouns like adjectives can, but they can be modified to be adjectives. Friend = OK Friendly = OK He's a friendly person = OK He's a friend person = NOT OK He's a friend = OK This should be something most speakers learn early, though, maybe they won't know all the rules for modification and will make up an incorrect adjective. I.e., He's a democratly person.
- TallGuyShort 7y ago
  But if the phrase "friend person" caught on (similar to, I don't know, the phrase "my bad"), we wouldn't consider it a "secret handshake" or "dog whistle". Especially since "members of the Democratic party" generally consider Republicans to be less well educated on average. Ascribing this to some kind of intentional, coordinated malice in all cases seems ludicrous to me.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    It's obviously intentional coordinated malice.. this isn't new, it's been written about for decades: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/the-ic-factor https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/the-ic-factor Someone like US Senator Josh Hawley went to Stanford, then to Yale Law, he clerked on the US Appeals Court and then for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was then elected as the Attorney General of Missouri and won the race for US Senator in 2018. Do you honestly think he doesn't know the proper name of one of the two major parties in the USA, or the body that organizes their elections? It's not subtle. Just super juvenile 'own the libs' silliness. > Today on Fox & Friends Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the Democrat National Committee ... > “Essentially the Democrat Party bought themselves ... https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sen-hawley-democrats-bought-federal-investigation-trump-campaign https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sen-hawley-democrats-bought-fe...