Reply #1: They do. Interestingly William F Buckley chided his fellow Repubs for doing this [View All]

[camera obscura]

“I have an aversion to ‘Democrat’ as an adjective,” Buckley began.

Dear Joe McCarthy used to do that, and received a rebuke from this at-the-time 24-year-old. It has the effect of injecting politics into language, and that should be avoided. Granted there are diffculties, as when one desires to describe a “democratic” politician, and is jolted by possible ambiguity.

But English does that to us all the time, and it’s our job to get the correct meaning transmitted without contorting the language.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/07/060807ta_talk_hertzberg