Editor,
While reading some recent politically-oriented letters, I’ve come to realize that I can save lots of time by simply bailing on a writer as soon as I encounter the expression “Democrat” party as a feeble attempt to refer to the Democratic party. Either the writer is too ignorant to know the difference between a noun and an adjective, or he/she has the emotional maturity of a fourth grader.
In either case, one thing is for sure, they’re probably a member of the Republic party.
Irv Brenner
Palo Alto
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(6) comments
Some Republicans argue that removing the "-ic" suffix strips away positive associations with the word "democratic" that the party name might imply1. They see it as a way to rhetorically separate the party from the broader concept of democracy.
Good morning, Irv
My friend, Tafhdyd, preferred Democratic Party to the term Democrat. I would on occasion change a comment in the DJ to accommodate his preference. However, sometimes using the term Democrat makes more sense. For example, Woodrow Wilson was a progressive Democrat or Barack Obama has labeled himself a "New Democrat." Now, I agree using the term "Dems" for members of the Democratic Party is a tad snarky, but it appears the Democratic Party's leadership does not find the term Democrat objectionable. After all, their website is .
I simply use Dem (and R) as shorthand (used to a twitter/X character limit), not to be snarky. Might use Lib to be a bit snarky though, but recently I've thought about stopping that because many of the people I am critical of are not liberal in the classic sense as they want to suppress free speech, limit freedom, etc. Need an abbreviation for "far left progressive" I guess.
Hi, MK...
So, the LTE writer objects to use of the word "Democrat" in lieu of "Democratic." That makes me wonder why he seems to prefer "Irv" to "Irving."
Yikes! I used angle brackets with the website's domain name, and the name did not get into my post. Sorry. It's... democrats.org
Thanks for your letter, Mr. Brenner, but a further observation… While reading some recent politically-oriented letters, I’ve come to realize that I can save lots of time by simply bailing on a writer as soon as I see the writer discussing a nothingburger (such as discussing the merits of the expression “Democrat” party, which BTW, is also used by folks in the Democratic party) or ignoring their candidate, especially, lately, Harris’s word salads and failure to provide a plan. Unless her plan is to continue Biden’s America Last policies. Either way, we can ignore their LTE’s unless they’re sincere about having an honest discussion.
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