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The "D" Word

for Echidne of the Snakes

From time to time it is good to bring up a topic of seemingly lesser importance and to give it a once over. While this can be a useless exercise you can find unexpected symptoms of an underlying problem. Sometimes it leads to a fun fix-it project.

The misuse of the word "Democrat" as in "The Democrat Party" or "The Democrat Candidate is something we should start calling them on right now, from today onward. "Them" used to be Bob Dole, that charmer from Kansas. The one who Walter Mondale summed up so well in his own turn of phrase, "Republican hatchet man,". He is the first person I noticed using it. And so distinctively. From his mouth it gives you the same kind of feeling you get while watching a white man spit on a black child. Assuming there aren't any conservatives reading this. Apparently our media was impressed similarly because even on the most allegedly non-Republican venues you can hear it being used today. If without some of Bob Dole's singular skill.

"Why get upset?", some of our otherwise most picky adherents of the Code of Liberal Ethics might be expected to ask. There are bigger issues, it is true. But as with the words "nigger" and "kike" the language does matter. Given where the use of "Democrat" first gained currency it wouldn't be at all shocking if it wasn't often used in phrases with those and other examples of greater invective. Though not on broadcast. At least not on the low end of the FM band.

It matters because it is a term of disrespect. That should be enough for members of the Democratic Party to insist on our media calling our party by its real name. It matters because Democratic candidates have won the right to contend for offices of the greatest importance. We should insist on equal treatment for our candidates and office holders. If they are shown respect they might start standing up for themselves, their party and their supporters. And if you can't summon the regard for our candidates themselves, they represent the rest of us. To diss them is to diss us. It matters because the Retuds would insist on the same if a Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee used a term of less than fawning respect for them. In fact, you could count on its use being a major campaign issue with many hours of discussion on Washington Journal with talking points passed out to frequent callers on the Retud line and the Retuds who call the Democratic line under false pretenses. It matters because Democrats certainly deserve that level of respect.

If you need another reason. It's fun for a beleaguered group to call them on it and watch their oppressor squirm for a change.