Way over in the Stupid liberal idea of the day thread, there’s an ongoing discussion about the use of this word. It seems the sense of those posting there tends to support not using that word because of the false etymology ascribed to it.
This thread’s linguistic issue does not strike me as all that important. The Democratic Party is composed of Democrats, just as the Republican Party is composed of Republicans. Plenty of people, it appears to me–both on- and off-line, are using the nominal “Democrat” to refer to both the party members and the party itself. So what? It’s a rather innocent mistake, unless, of course, someone has made it obvious they’re doing so to get an angry reaction to their use of the term.
In case it’s not obvious, I’m agreeing with DrDeth here.