Sunday - January 28, 2007
Democrats
I am often stunned at how quickly political
positions and terminology are created and then adopted among the political
classes, and then made into a political litmus
test.
The most recent example is the
democrat versus democratic debate. I have never in my life heard anyone called
a "democratic" they were always "democrats." The party was formally called the
democratic party, but at least since the days of Lincoln the parties have been
called the Republicans versus the
Democrats.
But not now. Now there has
been created out of thin air the charge that mean old republicans purposefully
use the term "democrat" instead of "democratic" as an insult to the members of
that party.
I'm not sure how that constitutes an insult. The
nuance in meaning is too subtle to be readily apparent to anyone, and that
difference is in no way changing the merits of the meaning. In reality, it is
just a way to get attention in the press and rile up people looking for
something to get riled up about.
I
heard this term for the first time Friday on the radio, and now I'm seeing it
repeated in odd places as though it was always some latent insult that democrats
everywhere have been steaming about for their entire lives. It's ridiculous and
it's only effect will be to isolate further people who do not choose to think
very much and only intend to point and howl at each other, obscuring rational
discussion.
The other time I noticed
this was many years ago. I don't recall the occasion, it was the anniversary of
something important, I think. Corretta Scott King was speaking to a large crowd
after being lauded with adulations. Mrs. King got up and spoke to the assembly
and made the shocking statement that she no longer thought she should be called
"black," from now on she wanted to be called "African-American."
The next day, everyone was using the
term as though it had always been the right term to use and it is now almost to
the point that using the term "black" is insulting. Generations of Americans
had been taught to stop using the previously correct word "negro" and only use
the word "black." Now we were told by this potentate that we must use the term
"African-American," even though it has less meaning and should include Arabs,
Egyptians, and Africans of Dutch, English, German, and other ancestry. African
means black to the same degree that flower means
daisy.
But none of that matters. We
are no longer allowed to call blacks anything but "African-American."
In the coming months and years we will
see more and more foot stomping temper tantrums if a democrat is referred to as
being in the democrat party. It will be fun to irk people over it, but I have
no doubt that they will persevere and take all the fun out of it. They will win
again. But the nation will lose as the victim ideology is reduced to such
banality.
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