# Liberals, Progressives, or Democrats, can we get over 'The Democrat Party?' **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 24, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186 "2014-05-24T16:00:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/61 "2014-05-25T00:33:24Z")
Well, they started it. That’s why it’s so funny. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/62 "2014-05-25T00:42:47Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > It just doesn’t work. A member of your party is a Democrat. Thus Democrat party. See. No knowledge of American history. No knowledge of America traditions. Most Republicans have absolutely no regard for the institutions that make America great. This is why Republicans make such horrible leaders. They operate in a complete bubble of ignorance. They just make random shit up because they like how it sounds at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/63 "2014-05-25T00:51:16Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > See. No knowledge of American history. No knowledge of America traditions. Most Republicans have absolutely no regard for the institutions that make America great. Perhaps most shockingly, no ability to use Google. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/64 "2014-05-25T00:53:12Z")
Don’t get me started on that! ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/65 "2014-05-25T02:34:08Z")
I’m pretty sure I’m registered as a Democrat. But the number of fucks I give about this matter is below the detection limit. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/66 "2014-05-25T05:29:43Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Wrong. The designation of an adherent of a political party is derived from the name of the party, not the other way around. Says who? Webster? Strunk and White? I roll my eyes over the perceived insult of democrat vs democratic, but not a quarter as hard as people insisting that we call those great messy birds Canada geese. That’s not how we name animals - you ever hear of the Africa and India lion? The America bald eagle? The Siberia tiger? The Tasmania devil? No. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/67 "2014-05-25T18:19:46Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > When used intentionally by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, it’s just childish taunting. Like anything else they say. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/68 "2014-05-25T18:21:05Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > That would work. If you (plural) were, actually, in any way “superior”. You aren’t. Only in the sense that liberals are superior to conservatives, which is a very real sense so far as it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/69 "2014-05-25T18:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > [QUOTE\*\*=Tim R. Mortiss;17403250] > And when you use the term Tea Bag, does that tell us a good deal about you? > > Seriously, how many people who claim “Democrat Party” is offensive can say they have never called the Tea Party the _Tea Baggers_? I doubt there are any. [/QUOTE] The difference is we admit that “Tea Bagger” is meant as an insult. The assholes who say “Democtat Party” _pretend_ they mean no offense. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/70 "2014-05-25T18:36:49Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > The difference is we admit that “Tea Bagger” is meant as an insult. The assholes who say “Democtat Party” _pretend_ they mean no offense. And, we always have the excuse that Tea Partiers used “Teabagger” first, before the dumbasses found out it has another meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/71 "2014-05-25T19:02:40Z")
\*Notable disciples include the late Christopher Hitchens, though he preferred the much more vague descriptor as ‘ **reformed Trotskyist** ’ rather than ‘ **former drooling idolator** ’. \* _With the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Union and the international bounty set on his head, **Trotskyists, as they called themselves (don’t call them Trotskyites, it makes them mad as hell)** began to push for an international program._ _The problem, of course, is that most of Trotsky’s major economic ideas are based in a reality which ceased to exist around the end of the Great Depression. Trying to enact the Trotskyist program in a unified world market powered by computers would have as much affect as implementing the Ron Paul platform (namely, it would be a socio-economic disaster whose equivalent has not yet been dreamed of by any science-fiction author)._ **[The Life and Times of Tony Cliff](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tony_Cliff)** — Rational Wiki ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/72 "2014-05-25T20:26:46Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > And when you use the term Tea Bag, does that tell us a good deal about you? > > Seriously, how many people who claim “Democrat Party” is offensive can say they have never called the Tea Party the _Tea Baggers_? I doubt there are any. Yes, of course it does. I am aware of that, which is unlike those who say “Democrat Party”. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/73 "2014-05-25T20:38:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Because it’s never used in the way you’re describing, so why invent excuses? How do you know it’s not used, at least sometimes, for that reason? From wikipedia: > [@](#): > > A 1984 New York Times article suggested Republicans began to use the term when Democrats used their own party name to imply “they are the only true adherents of democracy.”[2] Republicans “feared that ‘Democratic’ suggested Democrats [had] a monopoly on or are somehow the anointed custodians of the concept of democracy.” [first source link](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/17/us/democrats-find-ally-in-republican-camp.html) Maybe they’re just theorizing like me or maybe they got this idea from actual Republicans. The second reference link doesn’t go to an online source so I can’t check it out. How is it never used in the way I’ve described? ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/74 "2014-05-25T20:58:17Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Yes, of course it does. I am aware of that, which is unlike those who say “Democrat Party”. Wait a minute, aren’t the people saying “Democrat Party” deliberately using a term which bastardizes the preferred term as a form of derision? Isn’t that the consensus of this thread? Those are the guys everyone thinks are assholes, right, the ones doing it deliberately? So, why wouldn’t they know that it says something about themselves, in the same way that people who say “Tea Baggers” do? I’m sure they think it says something different than you do, but the same is true (in reverse) for those using the term Tea Bagger. I’m a Republican, and I don’t use the term. It wouldn’t occur to me, and I tend to call people what they name themselves. In other words, I agree it’s a bit childish. And so is calling someone a Tea Bagger. Tim made a great point. Amusing but not surprising, the responses–“It’s different when we do it…” ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/75 "2014-05-25T21:08:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And, we always have the excuse that Tea Partiers used “Teabagger” first, before the dumbasses found out it has another meaning. > [@Procrustus](#): > The difference is we admit that “Tea Bagger” is meant as an insult. The assholes who say “Democtat Party” _pretend_ they mean no offense. [/QUOTE] “\*We \*aren’t nearly as childish as they are.” To be fair, I’ve heard of elected officials who are Republicans say “Democrat Party.” Are there elected officials who are Democrats that use the perjorative “tea baggers”? Because I’ve never heard it come from any governors or members of congress. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/76 "2014-05-25T21:35:01Z")
> [@Gerald\_II](#): > > To be fair, I’ve heard of elected officials who are Republicans say “Democrat Party.” Are there elected officials who are Democrats that use the perjorative “tea baggers”? Because I’ve never heard it come from any governors or members of congress. [Chuck Schumer](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/14/schumer-pulls-tea-bagger-card-gop-candidate-brown/), for one. [Obama](http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/17911762/book-obama-calls-tea-party-tea-bagger), for another. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/77 "2014-05-25T22:06:59Z")
And to be fair, Bush famously called a Democratic party the “Democratical” Party. Just kidding, but it sounds like something Will Farrell would say when imitating Bush. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/78 "2014-05-25T23:12:12Z")
(never mind) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/79 "2014-05-25T23:18:01Z")
If you call the members of your party “Democrats” and then are surprised if someone refers to it as the “Democrat Party” you might wish to consider than maybe your name choice was ill advised. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186/80 "2014-05-25T23:35:58Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > > [@Kimstu](#): > > > > Wrong. The designation of an adherent of a political party is derived from the name of the party, not the other way around. > > Says who? Webster? Strunk and White? Says **historical fact**. As in, the name “Democratic Party” has been the **official** name of the party organization in question for nearly 200 years now. It’s derived from the name of its immediate ancestor, the “Democratic-Republican Party”. Its political adversaries don’t get to decide that it’s correct or inoffensive to call it something else just because they’ve got some half-assed justification for it based on sloppy etymology. > [@RickJay](#): > > If you call the members of your party “Democrats” and then are surprised if someone refers to it as the “Democrat Party” you might wish to consider than maybe your name choice was ill advised. Odd that elected officials and media don’t seem to have had any particular problem correctly identifying and using the official name of the “Democratic Party” for most of the 150+ years of its existence. Are you suggesting that the Republicans of today are just especially stupid or ill-informed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-progressives-or-democrats-can-we-get-over-the-democrat-party/689186.md?page=5)