I only see the adjective staunch being used to describe Republicans. Just did a Google search and Republican wins 2.3m hits to 1.5m. But I remember when I realized how often I saw staunch Republican that I decided to look out for staunch Democrat and I don’t recall ever seeing it.
Maybe “staunch” is one of those words that just seems to fit Republicans better. It brings to my mind an image of Pres. Taft looking at his pocket watch.
Google is really a bad indicator on the prevalence of such things. If you search “registered Democrat” you get something like 15 million hits, but “registered Republican” gets you 118 million hits. But I’m reasonably sure that there are not over ten times as many registered Republicans as there are Democrats.
IMHO, I think most democrats are democrats because it’s the lesser of two evils. They don’t feel enthusiastic, merely less repulsed. Of course, I might be projecting my own feelings there.
What about the Kennedys, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Shuman, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Rangel?
Why questions are always borderline inappropriate for GQ, particularly where politics is involved. With that caveat, here’s a not-really GQ answer.
The word staunch implies (at least to me) an attitude like my arms are folded, my mind is made up, I’m right, period. Which describes the stereotypical Republican pretty accurately.
Conversely, Democrats (or at least Progressives and Liberals as the term is used outside the US) are stereotypically defined mostly by their belief in diversity of valid opinion in others, and an open-minded willingness to beleive that new evidence could produce a change in their own opinions.
Whether one considers open-mindedness to really be a sugar-coated word for value-free wishy-washy-ness, or one considers staunch to really be a sugar-coated word for willful and selfish ignorance is left as an exercise for the reader.
Just use different search terms. I Googled “life long Democrat” and got 578,000 hits, while “life long Republican” got 359,000. “Committed Democrat” and “committed Republican” both got about 27,000 hits.
Aha, but whereas “lifetime Democrat” gets 8.6 million hits, “lifetime Republican” garners 49 million. 
:eek:
I suspect “staunch” describes fewer and fewer adherents of both major parties, given their recent proclivities and behavior.
No, that would be a stout Republican.
Will Rogers: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
Staunch just doesn’t apply, historically.
The typical media member is a liberal Democrat. It is a human tendency to see their own views as being the result of a rational process while the opponents views are the result of ignoring the evidence. Staunch implies inflexibility and an unthinking loyalty to party. Since Republicans have different views than the average media member they are more likely to be thought of as staunch.
Searching “yellow dog” democrat turned up 273k results.
[quote=“LSLGuy, post:5, topic:595719”]
Conversely, Democrats (or at least Progressives and Liberals as the term is used outside the US) are stereotypically defined mostly by their belief in diversity of valid opinion in others, and an open-minded willingness to beleive that new evidence could produce a change in their own opinions./QUOTE]
Wow, I am impressed. You actually managed to type the above statement with a straight face. I especially liked the “opon-minded” part. :dubious:
Do not use Google counts to determine relative importance like this. Their counting algorithm isn’t good enough to produce results that can be compared between searches. The results are meaningless. The best you can say is that both terms are in fairly common use.
<Assuming this is not a woosh.>
Wow. Just wow.
Does anyone use the word “staunch” in any context other than describing how dedicated they are to a political party?
I expect that it’s just a common unthinking word usage that has extended beyond the normal lifespan of such words, like saying “fine” in response to “How are you?” or declaring yourself to be “shocked and dismayed” at the start of a letter to the editor.
In the past I’ve described myself as a “staunch Democrat” and a “dyed in the wool Democrat” in a tongue in cheek fashion. But “lifelong Democrat” and “yellow dog Democrat” are more the phrases. Yellow dog meaning I’d rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. These days I’d rather vote for a yellow dog than a Democrat too. Let’s face it, yellow dogs have a lot of great qualities and few faults.
The first thing you do when you have amputated the limb of a friend with a chain saw is try to staunch the flow of blood with a tourniquet. Call the neighbors over for a spontaneous BBQ is the next thing you do.
Yup. ‘Staunch republican’ is a strong collocation. It doesn’t tell you that Democrats are less likely to be staunch, just that this phrase, ‘staunch Republican,’ doesn’t act like a normal adjective+noun noun phrase: the words are much more closely tied together.
It’s usually spelt stanch in that context, but staunch isn’t really used as an adjective with anything but Republican.
Two different spellings of the same word with the same meaning according to Merriam Webster, with “stanch” preferred.