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It seems like a small thing, not worth fighting about: the Republican habit of referring to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party." Even when they appear on progressive venues, such as Air America Radio, they persist in the misnomer, as Tom Tacredo just did on the Thom Hartmann show, broadcast today from New Hampshire. Explanations for the practice range from the fact that it results in the word "rat" slipping off the tongue, to the robbing of the party of its positive connotations associated with the "small d" democratic process, to a parroting of Joseph McCarthy. Unfortunately, they have been so successful at coining the ungrammatical swipe, that even members of the MSM have taken to picking up on it.
However, I have never felt that any of these explanations truly captures the pure sense of contempt that that annoying habit entails. Then I thought about substituting the word "Jew," for example, when the word "Jewish" would be more appropriate. Think "Jew boy" rather than "Jewish boy." Or think of "China man," rather than "Chinese man." I think the pure fact that "Democrat" is a noun, makes it qualify as an epithet, and the true measure of its contempt is best seen in those terms.
