At least twice today, I came across the incorrect usage “Democrat Party” right here in Comments sections of Daily Kos stories. I also saw “Democrat agenda.”
It seems to me that people interested in reading Daily Kos should presumably be aware that said usage is not only grammatically incorrect, and not only a misnaming of the Democratic Party (if it is the party you’re speaking about), but also, that it is most commonly used as a denigrating slur by opponents, most often Republicans, but also, I would imagine, by others who may not identify as members of the Republican Party but who either agree with the policies that the contemporary Republican Party embraces — in other words, everything the readers of this site do NOT agree with — or just flat out hate Democrats.
Of course, the fact that the term “Republican” functions as both a noun and an adjective, while the adjective “Democratic” differs from the noun “Democrat,” might lead to some to be confused, but nowadays, when one hears “Democrat Party,” those of us on the left tend to take that as an insult.
Here’s Wikipedia’s take: Democrat Party (epithet)
I’m not suggesting people be banned for this; I’m willing to concede they may be uninformed or that someone may have just made an honest mistake.
But might it be possible to add to the site rules a statement that DK requires (or at least prefers) that the adjective “Democratic” be used where that’s what’s called for, rather than the noun “Democrat”? And that we always refer to the “Democratic Party”? I for one would like to see this clearly stated in the house rules.