IT'S NOT THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

Almost nothing gets me more steamed than the repuglicans constant manipulation of language. From the Clear Skies Act to the Healthy Forrests Initiative, bush and his cohorts have managed to slap nice sounding names on the most horrible of policies. Al Franken said it best when he noted that (I'm paraphrasing) the Clear Skies Act is only an appropriate name if your goal is to clear the skies of birds. Anyway, this wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that they can inject this language into the public blood stream through their partners in crime like Fox News and rapidly turn it into accepted dialog.

This leads me to the latest new architected right wing phrase to really upset me: when they refer to the "Democratic" Party as the "Democrat" Party. And they do this because they think that the word "democratic" sounds too friendly and patriotic. I mean, everyone's democratic, right? The thing that turns this from annoying into maddening is that it has totally worked; a fact that became obvious to me when Scott Pelley used it TWICE during his recent interview with president bush. To me, 60 Minutes is the best news show, period. And to see one of their journalist use that term made me want to put my fist through the television.

The good news, I suppose, is that people are talking about it (for example, see last Sunday's Doonesbury). So, what can be done about this? Here's my idea: every politician, activist, left wing pundit, etc. who gets on the teevee should over-emphasize the "IC" sound on the end of the work democratic. "Yes, we in the DemocratIC Party believe in the rule of law." "Yes, we in the DemocratIC Party are against the war." "Yes, we in the DemocratIC Party don't believe in tax breaks for the wealthy." You get the idea.

Let's take these words back!