The importance of suffixes
posted by Liberal Eagle at 9:51 AM
George W. Bush, and the media, seem finally to have caught on to the fact that the phrase "the Democrat party" is, in fact, a passive-aggressive insult.
Bush, of course, used it on the campaign trail in 2006, while he was screaming about how the Democrat party wanted us all to get blowed up. That didn't surprise me much, since it was rarely even the most insulting thing in that particular sentence. But it was striking when he used that construction in the state of the union address--more so when you know that the teleprompter said "Democratic party" and Bush, apparently, deliberately dropped the last syllable.
Bush claimed, when he met with Democrats on Saturday, that it was merely the product of poor diction. Which I don't believe for a second. (I also don't think he was trying to insult anyone; I think that's just what people in his circles say, and it had become a habit, like when Dick Armey accidentally called Barney Frank "Barney Fag" in public.)
The press has, mostly, seemed oblivious until now to the fact that that construction is an insult, but it is. Deliberately mispronouncing the name of a group is disrespectful, and this particular mispronounciation tacitly strips the party's name of the characteristic of being "democratic," which is also rude.
I mean, if you think there's no meaningful difference between "Democrat party" and "Democratic party," consider this: would you shrug, if Bush started referring to the Jewish people as "the Jew people"?
I actually first encountered the "Democrat party" line, which I would hear numerous times from angry right-wing guys over the next four years, in 2003, at an anti-Iraq-invasion march in Tacoma. There was a group of counter-protesters, one of whom had a sign that informed us "you are pawns of the socialistic communistic Democrat party."
And I was like, first of all, if we anti-war types are being used by the Democrats, most of whom supported the invasion, they're using some very sophisticated reverse psychology here. Second, not wanting to go to war makes you both a socialist and a communist? Someone should have told the Soviet Union before they invaded all those countries.
And third...you've used the suffix "ic" twice already. (Incorrectly, I might add.) You couldn't be bothered to use it one more time to correctly name the party you're dissing? That's just rude.
And it never got any less so.
Bush, of course, used it on the campaign trail in 2006, while he was screaming about how the Democrat party wanted us all to get blowed up. That didn't surprise me much, since it was rarely even the most insulting thing in that particular sentence. But it was striking when he used that construction in the state of the union address--more so when you know that the teleprompter said "Democratic party" and Bush, apparently, deliberately dropped the last syllable.
Bush claimed, when he met with Democrats on Saturday, that it was merely the product of poor diction. Which I don't believe for a second. (I also don't think he was trying to insult anyone; I think that's just what people in his circles say, and it had become a habit, like when Dick Armey accidentally called Barney Frank "Barney Fag" in public.)
The press has, mostly, seemed oblivious until now to the fact that that construction is an insult, but it is. Deliberately mispronouncing the name of a group is disrespectful, and this particular mispronounciation tacitly strips the party's name of the characteristic of being "democratic," which is also rude.
I mean, if you think there's no meaningful difference between "Democrat party" and "Democratic party," consider this: would you shrug, if Bush started referring to the Jewish people as "the Jew people"?
I actually first encountered the "Democrat party" line, which I would hear numerous times from angry right-wing guys over the next four years, in 2003, at an anti-Iraq-invasion march in Tacoma. There was a group of counter-protesters, one of whom had a sign that informed us "you are pawns of the socialistic communistic Democrat party."
And I was like, first of all, if we anti-war types are being used by the Democrats, most of whom supported the invasion, they're using some very sophisticated reverse psychology here. Second, not wanting to go to war makes you both a socialist and a communist? Someone should have told the Soviet Union before they invaded all those countries.
And third...you've used the suffix "ic" twice already. (Incorrectly, I might add.) You couldn't be bothered to use it one more time to correctly name the party you're dissing? That's just rude.
And it never got any less so.
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