'Civility' In Politics, Democrat Party, Talk Radio

STICKING POINT

Phony 'Civility' Push Utilizes Loaded Language






What's a little "-ic" between enemies?

For whatever reason, some lefties are clearly miffed about the way radio talk show hosts, conservative columnists and Republican leaders routinely describe their political organization. Does it really matter whether one chooses to call it the Democrat or Democratic Party?

Though it might seem petty to many people, to some Democrats, dropping the "-ic" is akin to anti- semitism or McCarthyism.

Think your Radio Equalizer is joking? From Washington Post editorial writer Ruth Marcus, just get a load of this (also here):

If he wanted to, President Bush could change the tone in Washington with a single syllable: He could just say “ic.” That is, he could stop referring to the opposition as the “Democrat Party” and call the other side, as it prefers, the Democratic Party.

The derisive use of “Democrat” in this way was a Bush staple during the recent campaign. “There are people in the Democrat Party who think they can spend your money far better than you can,” he would say in his stump speech, or, “Raising taxes is a Democrat idea of growing the economy,” or, “However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses.”


...


Democrat Party was used, pardon the phrase, liberally by Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy. According to the Columbia Guide to Standard American English, “Democrat as an adjective is still sometimes used by some twentieth- century Republicans as a campaign tool but was used with particular virulence” by McCarthy, “who sought by repeatedly calling it the Democrat party to deny it any possible benefit of the suggestion that it might also be democratic.”

The word also achieved a prominent run with Bob Dole’s especially ugly reference to “Democrat wars” during the 1976 vice presidential debate.

But Demo- crat- as- epithet has seen its fullest flower- ing – on talk radio, among cong- ress- ional leaders and, more than with any of his predecessors, from the president himself – during the recent Republican heyday.

As Hendrik Hertzberg pointed out in the New Yorker in August, the conservative Web site NewsMax.com takes pains to scrub Associated Press copy “to de-‘ic’ references” to the party.


...


But as a matter of simple politeness – something the Bush family is famously good at – it’s rude to call people by a term that makes them bristle, even a seemingly innocuous one. There’s also something grating and coarse-sounding about this abbreviated appellation, like saying “Jew” instead of “Jewish.” It is, conservative wordsmith William F. Buckley wrote in National Review in 2002, “offensive to the ear.”

Yes, if only we nasty conservatives would listen to Buckley and restore the missing "-ic", then we too could avoid swimming in the sewer with anti- semites and McCarthyites. Does this seem even slightly rational?

After a long absence, why are we seeing the phony "civility" debate return now? To your Radio Equalizer, it's obvious: even the left realizes that with Democrats now in charge of Congress, conservative media opponents will gain in popularity.

So calling for civility, even in this loaded manner, is a way to undermine in advance any resurgence of talk radio or other emerging media critics of the Pelosi- Reid regime.


So why do conservatives often refer to their opponents as the Democrat Party? To us, it doesn't seem terribly complicated: the idea that one political organization should be able to present itself as "democratic" in nature, as though it has a monopoly on this concept, is simply dishonest.

According to Marcus, however, it appears there are several theories as to how the -ic was stripped away. Whatever the real reason, in this crazy world, aren't there more important things to worry about?


ELSEWHERE: our friends at Gateway Pundit and VCrisis are covering huge anti- Chavez rallies in Venezuela. In an effort to cut off the protests, Hugo shut off every entrance to Caracas, but it didn't affect turnout whatsoever. No doubt friend- of- global- thugs Rep Bill Delahunt (D-Mass) is furious.


Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of what you ultimately purchase, greatly help to support this site's efforts. Thanks again!

Technorati tags: washington post talk radio democrats democrat party democratic party republicans ruth marcus