The lack of civility in American politics began when Republicans started using "Democrat Party"...

[louis c]

...instead of the Democratic Party. Just like any demeaning remark, it begins with refusing to call a person (or organization) by it's own chosen name. For instance, I prefer Louis to Louie. I am not offended by Louie if someone doesn't know, but once I tell them (or they ask) which I prefer, after that, one only uses Louie as an insult to me.

That's what Republicans have done since around 1992. We can really trace the birth of the heightened lack of civility and respect to about that time (link below).

As long as any Republican knowingly uses "Democrat Senators" instead of Democratic, or "Democrat Party" it should be taken as a deliberate insult and lack of respect.

Link;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)

[at140]

1. Is it OK to call it the Republic party, or would that

be getting in the mud with them?

[lagomorph777]

14. Repiglicans.

[CountAllVotes]

26. Rapepublicans

If the shoe fits ..............

& recommend!!

[YessirAtsaFact]

29. The repugnant goon party

Accurate descriptor, from my POV

[PJMcK]

34. As others have posted, there are lots of derogatory names for Republicans

However, I choose to stay out of the childish game of name calling.

In fact, in my dictionary, the word Liberal has only positive connotations. Contrastingly, the word Republican has only negative descriptions.

[at140]

35. I like your thinking as an adult !

I wish there was less name calling on all sides.
Seems a bit juvenile. But then I am in my 70's.

At the end of day, derogatory names won't convert any independents. Talking about our compassionate & positive agenda could.

[sdfernando]

36. I'm going with "republican't" /nt

[maxrandb]

37. I prefer calling them the Retrumplican party

They've hitched their wagon to this racist orange piece of amphibian shit, so they are all RETRUMPLICANS

It really just rolls off the tongue naturally, and I wish Dems would use it with the same rote way Retrumplicans say "Democrat Party"

[at140]

38. Correct! They seem to have given up principles and

have joined the temple of orange doom. All because otherwise they would get primaried and lose their precious career!

[unblock]

2. The modern surge of right-wing assholery started with Reagan/Gingrich.

[TeamPooka]

3. Publicans are idiots.

[PatSeg]

4. It is piss poor English

"Democrat" is a noun, not an adjective.

Yes, I agree, this started back with Newt Gingrich who encouraged republicans in congress not to be civil with Democrats.

[LanternWaste]

5. Its usage conveniently highlights who the sub-literate idiots are.

While those justifying its usage highlights who the half-wits are.

And finally, those who use it out of mere petulance ("my idiocy triggered a snowflake! I'm such a clever idiot!" ) highlight who currently requires a code-red diaper change.




That said, I'll always point to "freedom fries" as the day the GOP jumped the shark from a political party to a well-dressed gaggle of simpletons (gentleman's bet a quarter-dozen snowflakes are already gnashing teeth as they rationalize its continued use).

[Squinch]

6. I don't know. I take issue with the underlying assumption.

I don't see a lack of civility in politics. I see a lack of civility on the part of republicans, but Democrats pretty much behave themselves.

The hearings were a good example. Who was complaining and snarling and insulting the other party, and who eas simply trying to get some facts out of the hearing?

[sanatanadharma]

7. Go back to 1951 and the movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Find the movie and locate the boarding house breakfast scene (some 20 minutes in, iirc)

This 1951 movie had dialog showing that the nation then had a sense of this tribal animosity.

The radio is on with news of the spaceman

person 1, "Why doesn't the government do something, that's what I'd like to know?"
person 2, "What can they do, they are just people like us?"
republican, "People my foot, They're democRATs"

[rusty fender]

8. The practice of using the subject form instead of the adjectival

Last edited Mon Oct 1, 2018, 08:49 PM - Edit history (1)

form of the word “Democrat” actually started with Joe McCarthy. Such usage didn’t become widespread among Repukes until Gingrich began using it incessantly.

No link because I don’t know how to do that on my IPad

[maui902]

20. Did you perhaps mean to refer to Joe instead of Eugene McCarthy?

The former being the Republican Senator who created "McCarthyism," and the latter being a Democratic Senator who ran for President in 1968? Perhaps not, but I'd be surprised if it was Eugene McCarthy who referred to his own party as the "Democrat" Party.

[rusty fender]

23. thank you for correcting me!

I'm afraid my age is catching up to me My mind is gone with the wind

[Initech]

9. Actually I'd say it began the day the Rush Limbaugh Show first aired.

That was pretty much the beginning of the downfall that led to republicans electing every unqualified kook they can find and why we're in the shit storm we're in now.

[llmart]

19. I'm going to have to agree with you.

He was disgusting from the start, but the way he talked about the Clintons was over the top.

Big, fat, bloated, loud mouth deplorable.

[Va Lefty]

31. I agree. This was presaged by the repeal of The Fairness Doctrine in 1987

[yonder]

10. I saw John Kerry on one of those late night shows a week or so ago.

He probably didn't, but I was sure I heard him refer to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party. A couple of times. The first time caught my ear, so I perked up and would swear he did it again.

Could be because of my less than ideal hearing these days. dunno

[malaise]

11. I've been screaming about this for years

Every fucking time one of them says it, they MUST be corrected on spot and given the grammar lesson. They will stop when they realize that Democrats repeat Democratic Party over and over. I do to agree with anyone who says they do it to annoy Dems. No they do it because they think they can rename the party while dissing it. You must respect your own name. Fight back. It is a very big thing.

It is not Democrat Party you fucking ignorant morons, it is Democratic Party.
Get thee to the greatest page

[Caliman73]

12. There has always been a lack of civility in American politics.

If we are talking about the current, media fueled name calling and extremism, then I would put its beginnings in the 1968 election and its viral outbreak in the 1990's with the hatred against Bill and Hillary Clinton.

However, American politics has always been difficult and "civility" isn't really what we should be striving for as much as an honest debate about which policies help the most Americans versus which help only a select few.

Here are some articles about "civility" in politics.

https://www.petaluma360.com/entertainment/8516122-181/the-historical-lack-of-civility

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/opinion/civility-protest-civil-rights.html

https://www.theringer.com/2018/6/27/17507212/lexicon-civility-buzzword

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/01/politics/civility-in-the-civil-rights-era/index.html

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. I usually interpret it as deliberate, not an accident of ignorance like "nucular".

If I care about the conversation, I correct them. If not, I hang up the phone, walk away, ignore, etc.

[a kennedy]

15. That just burns my ears every time I hear it.......

[Cetacea]

16. "democrat" is not an adjective

But if you tell them that you are likely to lose them...

It's amazing how "on message" they are with this on various TV news shows. The RNC most likely sends out memos.

If it's meant to enrage, it's highly effective.

[DFW]

17. I'd say it started with McCarthy

Republicans lapped it up like a cat with a dish of fresh milk until the public would put up with it no longer.

McCarthy was publicly shown to indeed have, at long last, no sense of decency. But other Republicans saw the benefits and advantages of having no sense of decency, and passed them on. The trick was getting their base to not only accept a lack of decency, but to demand it (Nixon). It went downhill from there. With Trump, they are entering terminal phase, where decency is something they abhor. The step from here to storm troopers with baseball bats at rallies for Democratic candidates is no longer a great leap, but a small step.

[bobbieinok]

33. You make a very convincing point

[GeorgeGist]

18. Lee Atwater

[11 Bravo]

21. As I recall, a fat shock jock radio junkie with multiple drug charges ...

and a history of medically treated impotence issues which permitted him to engage in trips to notorious sex-tourism dens (specializing in the availability of young boys), was the one who initiated the whole "Democrat Party" bullshit.

[Ms. Toad]

22. So in the 1970s (or earlier) when Democrats I grew up with were using the term

to refer to themselves?

Seriously, this is a very stupic hill to die on.

Are some Republicans using it to yank our chains? Sure - as long as using it keeps generating outrage disproportionate to the actual offense, of course they're going to have fun using it.

But is is also misused innocently by a lot of people - including a lot of Democrats who just aren't stellar grammarians.

[louis c]

24. I was politically active since 1968 in the Democratic Party

and I don't remember a single person referring to our party as the "Democrat Party". It's an insult to us every time someone uses it. Some may do it because they don't know better, but Republicans use it as an insult.

[ck4829]

25. The next part of the decline came with "both sides"

Sure the fringe radical right wants to throw Muslims and Jews into camps, but did you know there is a fringe radical left that... (deep breath) wants to make sure everyone has healthcare? Both sides are crazy.

[Anon-C]

27. Early 90s....Rush Limbaugh and AM hate radio, Newt Gingrich and the Contract on America...

...Whitewater and the growth of the right wing conspiracy cottage industry.

[Frustratedlady]

28. Wasn't that about the same time that the Republicans announced they would not cooperate with Obama?

That he would never be a 2-term president?

[SharonAnn]

39. No, it really gained focus with Gingrich

He relentlessly pushed partisanship.

[California_Republic]

30. Only person I ever saw challenging him on that was a foreign reporter

Only person I ever saw challenging him on that was a foreign reporter

President Bush played it off that he didn’t know that the Democratic Party cared about that with a simple little smile

[bobbieinok]

32. Strongly disagree--88 Willie Horton ad. More impt dogs, firehoses vs black kids in AL

GOP might say LBJ mushroom cloud ad in 64