Democratic vs Democrat Party?

I have a progressive friend who I discuss politics with. Yes - people with opposing views can debate with each other without inflicting bodily harm on one another. We banter back and forth but get on rather well otherwise.

Sometimes in the spirit of getting under his skin (why not? life is short) I use Democrat Party as opposed to Democratic when referring to his beloved Donks. It drives him nuts. So I asked him one time why that was the case?

His answer was that the Party’s name is the Democratic Party. Fair enough I knew that. But why the anger? Democrat isn’t exactly a universal cuss word (partisan politics aside). In fact that is the adjective that we use for politicians with a D next to their name. Surely there are bigger issues to rile oneself up with then the dropping of the -ic.

Researching the issue further on my own I came across a study by Republican pollster Frank Luntz. After much data collection Luntz concluded that it was only really the most partisan of Democrats who were bothered by this. However the reasons given were once again very vague.

If Right wing Republicans are using it as a taunt why give in to the troll and respond in the way that they want you to? It seems self defeating. So I dug deeper.

According to the literature the term Democrat Party actually goes back as far as 1890. It was first used as a synonym for the Democratic Party.

Here is the earliest use I could find

Whether a little farmer from South Carolina named Tillman is going to rule the Democrat Party in America—yet it is this, and not output, on which the proximate value of silver depends.

Democrat Party has been used several times by the Republicans but has never been officially adopted by the RNC. The backlash tends to be intense. Jack Kemp actually nixed the idea when it came up in the 1984 convention.

So after looking at this further I came to an explanation that makes some sense (albeit with somewhat of a grain of salt). Democrat Party sounds a lot like Autocrat Party or Bureaucrat Party and nobody within the accepted political dimensions wants to belong to anything that approximates such a structure - at least in principle -, hence the hostility. So reasons William Safire.

Perhaps he is correct, although the message seems to have been lost on Messrs Newsom, Whitmer, De Blasio and Garcetti circa 2020, who look set to follow in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson in using the excuse of a supposed national crisis to clamp down on civil liberties. Odd isn’t that? Democrat, Autocrat…oh whatever.

As for myself I retired the old jibe. Its utility has served its purpose. Life moves on and I am sure my friend will throw his fair share of barbs at my face. Although I still chuckle at the trigger appeal of a term that offers such Pavlovian benefits. Life offers so much of a wicked appeal.

Sources

1. Oxford English Dictionary under "Democrat" 4 citing the London Spectator November 15, 1890 p. 676.
2. You could look it up : more on language : Safire, William, 1929-2009 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
3. THE “IC” FACTOR