I grew up in the South in the 50s and 60s and it was always the “Democrat Party”. But then again, it was only a coal camp with a county newspaper. I never knew there was a rub about that name until the 1990s, when Rush Limbaugh received some grief about always referring to them as “the Democrat Party”.
It is true, it was founded as the “Democratic Party” in 1828 and has always used that title for doing official business out of Washington. I’ve never seen a letterhead, but I assume that’s what it says.
But, as I just recently mentioned about other contested terms in history, I rushed out to consult Wikipedia, and true to form, they came through again, by seeing all things History through a post-2000 lens, as if history only began then. They called “Democrat Party” an “epithet”.
Democrat Party is an epithet for the Democratic Party of the United States, used in a disparaging fashion by the party’s opponents. While the term has been used in a non-hostile way, it has grown in its negative use since the 1940s, in particular by members of the Republican Party—in party platforms, partisan speeches, and press releases—as well as by conservative commentators and Third party politicians.
And also true to form, all but a couple citations by New York Times journalist, Russell Baker and William Safire, one a classical liberal the other a libertarian, all 46 of their citations are post 2000, which tells me the “epithetization” of the term is really very modern. Even generational.
In short it really gnaws at the Democrats’ (and modern Left’s) craw and threatens the image they want to (re-re-re-) craft of themselves in 2021.
I’ve had this photograph in my collection since I began building a photo gallery and it says so much.
First, this is proof of a name they proudly called themselves closer to the 1920s than 1940, as Wiki asserts.
One of my favorites, because, while southern, it puts on display the cream of southern society from around the Woodrow Wilson era, when the KKK were not only the Democrat Party’s para-military, but its bodyguards, and social inspiration. Thirty years later a couple of these babes might find themselves being driven around in a ’53 Buick by a guy who looked liked Morgan Freeman, only, in fairness to Miss Daisy’s family, who were Jewish, no self-respecting Democrat Party would ever allow one of “them” to put on that lily white dress and sacred pointed sorcerer’s hat of the Klan.
Again, being a small town kid, while we had 3-4 Klan members, our company town would not allow them to do klavern things, so they joined one in a nearby town that was wet, which probably suited their fancy more anyway. We had segregation, even separate water fountains, but at the soda fountain in our company store, anyone could sit anywhere. Plus that I could walk over to “Miss” Motley’s and buy a gumball any day.
But if you can turn your gaze away from the high fashion, take a look at the faces of these honeys. You’ve seen those faces lately, only these sweeties are screeching epithets on their own. IN 1920 they were too danged genteel. Something just not done on the planks of their society. And look behind them, the background…the finer residences,…wide streets, street lamps (we didn’t get those until 1960 in my town) and the three-story homes probably with Aunt Jemima’s cooking and cleaning on every floor. And out of sight.
This could also be Schenectady or Springfield, Illinois? Just saying. For on that level of the social ladder, they all looked and acted pretty much the same. Just colorize this photo and you have the Fashion-in-Pink display from January 2017.
Thanks once again to Wikipedia for a fine tutorial.
