Grammar Alert: It’s The “Democratic” Party, Not the “Democrat” Party

As Pat Cunningham reminds us, “Democrat” is a noun, and “Democratic” is an adjective. It is grammatically incorrect to call our oldest political party the “Democrat” Party.

The genesis of this Democrat-as-an-adjective silliness is not entirely clear. According to one theory, it all started with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the infamous red-baiter and witch-hunter of the mid-19th century. Others say it can be traced to the late 1950s when a man named Meade Alcorn, chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a directive to his minions to thereafter avoid use of the word “Democratic.”

McCarthy’s example or Alcorn’s admonition, whichever it was, has been heeded to this day among the party’s more zealous elements. And woe to he or she who dares stray from this orthodoxy.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.