"Democrat" is Not an Adjective, Folks
Let’s
get something straight. I seem to be
harping on this point, making it in repeated blog postings, but I get the
feeling that many Democrats don’t seem to get it. Unfortunately, most Republicans do. I specifically direct this to Democratic
politicians who should, but do not, know better. If you know any, pass this on to them. Please! (and read it anyway, even if you're not a Democratic politician.)
The
words “Republican” and “Democrat” when specifying an individual are nouns. Examples: George is a Republican. John is a Democrat. All Republicans in the hall applauded. All Democrats in the hall applauded. A
member of those parties is a “Republican” or a “Democrat.” These two words are nouns, a noun being a "person, place or thing," as you were taught in school sometime during the last century.
The
word, “Republican,” can also be an adjective ... which remember is something that modifies or explains a noun. Example: The Republican Party. But, and this is very important and where it
gets tricky, the word “Democrat” is not an adjective and should never be used
incorrectly as one. The correct
adjective is “Democratic.” Example: The Democratic Party. Using or saying
“Democrat Party” is wrong, wrong, wrong!
Reiterating
my point, the word “Democrat,” while a noun as explained above, is not, and
should never be used as an adjective.
Misusing it in that manner gives it a pejorative tone. (The closest parallel I can think of is
calling a Jewish businessman a “Jew” businessman. Get it?) Calling the Democratic Party or its
candidates, the “Democrat” Party or “Democrat” candidates, is subtly
offensive and brings joy to Republicans. It was started during the 1940’s by Minnesota governor Harold Stassen, a perennially unsuccessful Republican Presidential aspirant, and is continued by Republicans today. Listen to Jim Jordan and his ilk.
Sadly,
I sometimes hear Democrats using it as well.
When they do, they reinforce Republican usage of the word, giving it
undeserved respectability (sort of like the way the President legitimized North
Korean murderer Kim Jong Un by meeting with him twice).
Republicans
want to disassociate the praiseworthy non-political connotations of the word
“democratic” with the name of the Democratic Party. Calling it the “Democrat Party” accomplishes
that. And Democrats do not want to do
that! Understand? Do you?
Jack Lippman
Politicklers
Gaetz, Jordan and Meadows: People
who object to the intemperate comments of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz
regarding Michael Cohen and consider the Congressman to be an idiot must
remember that it took a majority or plurality of idiots in his Congressional
District to elect him. We have people
like Gaetz, and the infinitely more dangerous Jim Jordan
and Mark Meadows in
Congress because they represent the ideas of the people who elected them. Like it or not, this is America today and
that is a bigger problem than Gaetz and company, as individuals, will ever be. They will come and go but the hate and
ignorance which nourishes them will continue.
 |
| Donations Accepted to Buy Him a Jacket |
Louche: A few weeks ago, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd used a word in her column referring to the President’s supposed extra-marital activities which sent me scurrying to the dictionary (on line, of course) for its meaning. Later, I asked a few intelligent friends of mine if they were familiar with the word and none were.
 |
| Goldberg |
a. A sofa or couch in a brothel where sexual activities take place?
b. Disreputable or sordid in an appealing way?
c. French expletive used by someone being pinched?
d. French pornographer beheaded by Revolution in 1788. (Jean-Pierre Louche)?
(Correct
answer at end of this posting)
Michael Cohen's Testimony:
The
most unusual thing about Michael Cohen’s open testimony before the House
Oversight Committee was the failure of the members of its Republican minority
to challenge any of the allegations made by Cohen. They ignored Cohen’s sometimes
well-documented charges that the President is a racist, con-man and a cheat and
limited their remarks to attacks on Cohen, painting him as someone not to be
believed because of his previous lies before Congress and his status as a
convicted felon on the way to prison for his lying which just happened to be done
as an employee of and in defense of the President.
 |
| Cohen |
Did
this amount to their tacit acceptance of what Cohen was revealing, the G.O.P. Congressional equivalent
of their standing by idly as Trump figuratively shot someone down in the middle of
Fifth Avenue? History will mark 2019 and
2020 as the end of the Republican Party as we have known it since its birth in
the 1850’s.
The 'Art of the Deal' Author Flunks Out: And
speaking of the President, his utter failure to accomplish anything in his
Vietnam meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un validates the position of prior
Presidents, often criticized by Trump, in refusing to meet with that despotic
nation’s leaders, because doing so would legitimize their terror-ridden
practices. The President’s vaunted
skills as a negotiator amounted to nothing.
In reality, his supposed historic “negotiating” skills amounted to no
more than having Michael Cohen, who testified to this, threaten over 500
parties with whom Trump was “negotiating” with expensive and never-ending lawsuits
if they didn’t see things Donald’s way.
This includes his contacting the educational institutions the President
attended and the SAT Board as to their keeping his records confidential. (In a recent posting on this blog, I touched
upon this point, even questioning his showing up in class, saying that the New
York Military Academy, Fordham University, the University of Pennsylvania and
its Wharton School had something about which to be ashamed.)
JL
Internet Causing Political Disruption Worldwide?:
Occasional
Washington Post and Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle had a recent column,
to which I unfortunately cannot obtain a free link, suggesting that the
disruption affecting politics today is not caused by either the decline
of America’s white working class, their possible racism, immigration, political
correctness, the 2008 economic crisis nor the arrogance of America’s “self-appointed mandarin class." She points out that the appearance of “Trumpish”
leaders such as Duterte in the Philippines, Bolsonaro in Brazil and Orban in
Hungary parallel what has happened in America on a worldwide basis, so
this is not a particularly American phenomenon.
 |
| McArdle |
McArdle
postulates that “perhaps the most compelling answer is that the internet, and
particularly social media, is disrupting politics the way it has disrupted
everything else – nearly everywhere and all at once.” She points out that political upheaval seems
to follow advances in communications technology, the disasters of the 1930s (the rise of fascism) being preceded by radio and the confused 1960s (opposition to the Vietnam War) being preceded by
television. These innovations “fundamentally changed
people’s relationship with information,” altering politics. She offers this as a global explanation but anticipates
“more convulsions until societies have fully processes the technological shift.” I feel that this is really an excellent explanation of what's going on today.
JL
“louche” (pronounced ‘loosh’) – correct answer is “b.”
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