If you watch too much C-Span and other political news shows, yes, including the Daily Show, you'll have noticed what word-smiths those republicans are. Not only do they come up with clever twists of phrases ("death panels") ("death tax"), but they change words to subtly change their import.
All of a sudden, in a news week, 50 gazillion republicans/tea partiers are using the same phrase. And no other. For days and weeks last summer we heard about "death panels". To the point where it got a bit scary. Not the phrase, but the echo.
Last year at some point it became annoyingly apparent that those old word-meisters have decided that using the word "democrat" instead of "democratic" (as in "democrat party" -- ouch) gave it just an uglier sound. The rationale as I understand it is that it takes away the implication that democrats are, well, democratic.
A few weeks ago I even heard a DEMOCRAT refer to the "democrat party" and I cried. Are we so easily manipulated?
There is a rather nice history of the mis-appellation at:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200608160005
However important or un- you might feel this hatcheting of the adjective "democratic", the fact is, it is grammatically incorrect. But, as usual, we in the DemocratIC party feel that manipulating words, or even defending our own words, is just petty. But words are not petty; words incite feelings, about ourselves and our lives. And the "republic party" knows it.
So y'all that use democrat to describe someone who is in fact, democratic, are either being manipulative or ignorant. So cut it out.
And don't forget, a vote for Alvin Greene is a vote against Jim Demint, the corporate candidate.
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