Rather than risk a hijack of the MTG thread, or to resurrect an old thread, I’m making a new one.
Only ‘Democrat’ isn’t an adjective. ‘Democratic’ is.
When people say “Democrat Party” they’re attempting to be rude. So I take it as rude. But in the scheme of things, it’s not the worst. I started a pit thread on it a few years back. As I recall, we had a troll like poster who did it all time and I just snapped.
I’m older and calmer now.
It’s relatively minor, I find it slightly annoying because it’s like dealing with a child whose just trying to get a rise out of you. The democrats should just ignore it and move on.
It’s a small, petty thing which has caught on like a wildfire with Republicans. It’s like intentionally misprounouncing someone’s name.
Joe Biden is a democrat, he belongs to the Democratic party. It’s really simple.
I can recall at least one now-banned Doper who, pretty clearly, used the term “Democrat Party” because he knew it would piss people off.
The grammatical rule that would apply in “democratic principles” need not be followed when referencing the proper noun Democrat. And arguably it is better for the adjectival form to be Democrat in order to be clear that you’re talking about party affiliation rather than philosophical principles. As I pointed out, that’s what the rest of the world generally does in the case of Liberal Democrat or Social Democrat politicians.
We should certainly refer to people according to their preference, so if U.S. Democrats prefer “Democratic” that’s what we should use. I’m just pointing out that gramatically it’s not so clear cut as you seem to think, and to non-U.S. people it may seem a bit odd that it is seen as offensive.
From the Wikipedia article that you link:
In 2012, the British magazine The Economist stated:
The real reason ‘Democrat Party’ is wrong is not because it’s ungrammatical, but because it’s incorrect in another way—the party is simply not named the Democrat Party, but the Democratic Party. Calling it anything else is discourteous.
Exactly, they are being intentionally hostile.
I agree that that is the main reason it is a slur. However, the way you posted a piece of that link makes it look like the article is saying that Democrat as an adjective is completely correct. For anyone who did not read the link I quoted more for context.
Among authors of dictionaries and usage guides who state that the use of Democrat as an adjective is ungrammatical are Roy H. Copperud,[9] Bergen Evans,[14] and William and Mary Morris. In particular, the latter have written: “It is the idiotic creation of some of the least responsible members of the Republican Party.”[15]
In 2005, Ruth Walker, who has been the long-time language columnist for The Christian Science Monitor,[16] while stating that Democratic is the correct term in most instances, placed the adjectival use of Democrat within a broader trend:
We’re losing our inflections—the special endings we use to distinguish between adjectives and nouns, for instance. There’s a tendency to modify a noun with another noun rather than an adjective. Some may speak of ‘the Ukraine election’ rather than ‘the Ukrainian election’ or ‘the election in Ukraine’, for instance. It’s ‘the Iraq war’ rather than ‘the Iraqi war’, to give another example.[[17]](Democrat Party (epithet) - Wikipedia
Should I remember that the next time I see someone refer to, say, Trumplicans?
This is the “I’m not touching you! Am I bugging you? But I’m not touching you!” of politics. It has the same intent and comes from the same level of maturity.
I’m happy to see a thread on this, so I’ll copy my comment from the other thread over here.
The first paragraph you quoted there is hardly a grammatical commentary when it discusses the usage as the idiotic creation of Republicans.
And everything else you have quoted supports what I said, that it is grammatically consistent with other proper noun usage. It may be rude, but it’s not ungrammatical.
What does that have to do with anything whatsoever?
Somebody who says “Trumplican” is clearly being derogatory. Somebody who says “Democrat Party” may or may not be. So it’s good practice, if you’re not intending to actively offend, to use the intended term rather than a pejorative.
There was an unstated assumption of a situation where we want to be polite. This only serves to reinforce the claim that origin of the term was intentional disrespect.
[ninjaed by @Johnny_Bravo ]
Given that “Democrat Party” is apparently grammatically correct (if stylistically incorrect), if the term was used by someone from outside of the U.S., or truly unfamiliar with the correct terminology, I agree, it wouldn’t necessarily be intended to be derogatory. But, in general U.S. political discourse, I suspect that its usage is almost always intended to be trollery (or maybe just pedantry).
But, it seems it is not grammatically correct.
Q: Is it the “Democratic” Party or the “Democrat” Party?
A: The proper term is “Democratic Party.”
< snip >
The party traces its roots to 1792 and the anti-federalist faction led by Thomas Jefferson. The Jeffersonians called themselves “Republicans” at first, and later “Democratic-Republican.” The party splintered in the late 1820s, and the faction led by Andrew Jackson in his successful presidential campaign of 1828 became the modern Democratic Party. It formally adopted the name “Democratic Party” at its convention in 1844. - SOURCE
Also see:
I don’t see what any of that has to do with correct grammar.
Nobody can dispute that the correct formal name of the party is the Democratic Party, that is objectively true.
Nevertheless, if the members are called Democrats, it would not be a grammatical error to talk about a Democrat politician or a Democrat senator. As a local U.S. cultural matter, it may be seen as a slur or disrespectful.
Dick Durbin is a Democrat from Illinois.
Dick Durbin is a Democratic senator from Illinois.
Dick Durbin is a member of the Democratic Party in the US.
When trying to distinguish the question of grammatical correctness this is unhelpful.
Social Democratic Party
Social Democrat
Social Democrat MP
Please read the thread for other examples of usage with proper nouns.