History of Usage
The history of the term has been traced by scholars. The earliest reported use of the term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, came in 1890: "Whether a little farmer from South Carolina named Tillman is going to rule the Democrat Party in America—yet it is this, and not output, on which the proximate value of silver depends."
The partisan use as epithet has been traced by William Safire to the 1940 presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. Willkie's campaign manager Harold Stassen explained to Safire his motivation for using the term: Stassen said that because the Democratic Party was at that time controlled by undemocratic bosses—"by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly-Nash in Chicago, should not be called a 'Democratic Party.' It should be called the 'Democrat Party.'"
The noun-as-adjective has been used by Republican leaders since the 1940s, and in most GOP national platforms since 1948. By the early 1950s the term was in widespread use among Republicans of all factions. In 1968, Congressional Quarterly reported that at its national convention "the GOP did revert to the epithet of 'Democrat' party. The phrase had been used in 1952 and 1956 but not in 1960."
Use of the term has been a point of contention within the Republican Party. In 1984, when a delegate of the Republican platform committee asked unanimous consent to change a platform amendment to read the Democrat Party instead of Democratic Party, New York Representative Jack Kemp objected, saying that would be "an insult to our Democratic friends" and the committee dropped the proposal. In 1996, the wording throughout the Republican party platform was changed from "Democratic Party" to "Democrat Party": Republican leaders "explained they wanted to make the subtle point that the Democratic Party had become elitist". A proposal to use the term again in the August 2008 Republican Platform for similar reasons was voted down with leaders choosing to use "Democratic Party". "We probably should use what the actual name is," said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, the panel's chairman. "At least in writing."
The term has also been used by liberal activist Ralph Nader.
Read more about this topic: Democrat Party (epithet)
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