'Repigs', 'Repukes', 'Rethugs': Time to can lazy epithets.

[denem]

My wife is a Republican. A welded on republican. She hates politics, avoids Fox, MSNBC and news commentary in general. This was so during GWB's administration and Clinton's. Probably the last time she took any real interest was in the days of Ronald Reagan.

What do I mean by welded on? : Voting McCain while she loathed Sarah Palin. Aerial hunting of wolves was enough to turn her stomach.

My wife reads DU. She looks for my posts, and often strays into others with interesting titles. Sometimes I can discuss an issue, but more often, my beloved counters: That's why I hate politics. You hate me. I'm a repuke, a rethug, a fascist. "You are a fascist honey" I say, and we share a smile.

This is not a personal post, just an illustration. The lexicon of casual abuse and invective not only fails to advance exposition, nor debate, but digs the trenches deeper, while the Powers-That-Be stroll happily onwards through no man's land.

Consider DU's beloved: The Magistrate, a man who excels in elegant civility while hitting harder than anyone when he saw fit.

Casual invective is lazy and counterproductive: You're a Rat. You're a Repuke. I hate you, so listen to me.

The Führer is reported to have said, 'On my memorial, there will be no epitaph; The words Adolph Hitler will suffice'.

'Republican' is sufficient.

[WonderGrunion]

1. Until their leadership stops calling us the Democrat Party

I will continue to call them Republics.

Besides, The Magistrate is a better person than I am.

[cliffordu]

2. I can't help who you married.

There aren't invectives strong enough for the republicant's

And if she voted for McCain, well then, that speaks for itself.

Sorry. No sale.

[Sebastian Doyle]

49. Yep. You can't vote for McCain and NOT vote for Palin.

I voted for Joe Lieberman in 2000. I'm not proud of the fact, but he was on the ticket with Al Gore, who won the election. If there are any silver linings in the very dark cloud that resulted from that fraud, it's the fact that Lieberdouche will never be President.

If she voted for Grandpa Simpson, she voted for Moosealini too.

[cliffordu]

51. That is exactly right.

[Pithlet]

80. Agree absolutely.

Sorry. This is DU. If she doesn't like it, she can not read DU. Them's the breaks.

[sandnsea]

3. When she stands up against Rush Limbaugh

I'll worry about her widdle feelings about being called a Rethug. And I don't even use those terms. I don't see how anybody can vote Republican. They haven't destroyed enough of the land or killed enough people yet? My sister is a Republican too and I think the same of her. She just doesn't take the time to read anything except the shit she gets from Arkansas news which may as well be Republican.

[undeterred]

4. How can any reasonable person be "welded on"

to a party whose leaders regularly lie and distort the truth about extremely important matters, whose only real core value is the increase of wealth for the wealthiest among us, who have open contempt for the poor and the middle class, and who don't think twice before taking the country to war?

[denem]

6. If you've given up listening, disgusted by all the bile, it just floats down the river.

[undeterred]

10. You can't get away from the bile if you tune in to politics.

So many of the mainstream media sources are corporate/republican owned that even the news on a progressive radio station takes a right wing point of view. So does mainstream television news. And there's never anything new or good or helpful coming from the republicans. Sorry, that's the way it is. Values are important, especially in choosing a partner.

[denem]

13. So she does not tune in, and votes accordingly.

[Hugabear]

29. So she simply votes for whoever has the (R) after their name?

To me, that is worse than a repuke ideologue. At least they know why they're voting for their candidates, even though I may find their views repugnant.

Besides, you said she loathes Sarah Palin. If she's not tuned in, then how would she know to loathe her? Just because she sees so many other people making fun of her?

[mitchum]

76. Sounds more as if she just likes to vote AGAINST Dems...and that shrew wants civility from us???!!!

[Doremus]

56. That's worse than not voting, imo. Really, what is the point of that?

Voting as an exercise in and of itself? To visit with the poll workers? To get an I Voted sticker?

If she thought she was supporting traditional repub values in voting for the (R) ticket in the last presidential election, she couldn't be more wrong. I would add that that would be the case for every (R) ticket since, and including, Ronald Reagan.

If educating herself on the current state of her precious party is so repugnant to her, perhaps her time would be better spent trying to wrest it back from the neocons.

[Arugula Latte]

78. Do you have any respect for this person you're married to?

Sorry, but I wouldn't.

[Hugabear]

5. After everything those fuckers have done to destroy this country? No thanks.

Epithets like repukes, rethugs, etc don't even come close to describing the vile and contempt I feel towards the GOP. After everything they've done to destroy the country, fuck over the poor, trample over our civil rights, and dragging us into countless wars across the globe, the GOP can go FUCK themselves. Alan Grayson described the GOP health-care plan perfectly - "Don't get sick, and if you do, die quickly".

Why does she continue to call herself a Republican, what virtue does she see? Most rethugs I know still cling to the "trickle down" philosophy, despite the fact that it completely and utterly failed. Most still cling to the notion that somehow, the poor should just "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" - that if we all just applied ourselves and weren't so goddamned lazy, that we could all be rich.

[malaise]

35. +1

Whenever their leadership reverts to Democratic Party get back to me.

[AsahinaKimi]

37. +1000

eom.

[LaydeeBug]

40. and we have a winner!! We will stop being condescending when they bring something to the table that

isn't the same old Republicon meme that got us in this fucking mess in the first place.

[NC_Nurse]

7. Lost cause. I have trouble feeling bad about it too, since mainly RW folks

like Rush and Ann Coulter pushed the discourse to the low it currently lives in.

[sarge43]

8. If she is offended, your wife should step up and speak for herself. n/t

[madmom]

9. Maybe the truth hurts? Perhaps if she read a little further she might find out why

they are called that, hell she might even be enlightened. I agree no sale.

[OregonBi]

69. You do have a good point!

Ignorance of reality is no excuse to be confused which I feel the OP's wife is. That is not to say though that we are still better than and above their garbage talk and actions.

[Richardo]

11. Kudos, my friend Quixote, for engaging in battle with this particular windmill

I'll give you a rec for the effort. But it's a no-win debate. The name-calling is one of the worst aspects of DU, and one that makes it indistiguishable from FR.

I guess the perjoratives are supposed to be funny, or witty, or clever, but they never are, they add nothing to the substance of the point, and make the user look like a third-grader who is not to be taken too seriously.

When the right does it (Savage, Levin, Limbaugh are the worst) it's offensive, but when a DUer does it, it's supposed to be the height of sophisicated debate. Can't be both.

:patriot:

[Chemisse]

31. I applaud you - one of the few respectful responses

I always end up with a slightly bad feeling about my post if I resort to using such terms.

Bile doesn't just affect those it's directed at; it damages us a little bit each time we utter it.

[OregonBi]

65. A voice of sanity emerges

Aside from the political impact, when we talk and act like FR freaks, we become little different than them in the public's eye. Just the other side of the same coin.
Democrats, REAL Progressive Democrats are ABOVE that garbage trash talk. Just because the republicans and FReakers talk that kind of smack, doesn't require we do the same. Our intellectual superiority in all manners of politics, life, economics, education, business, finance, and human nature and relationships demands that we act as such.
When we see the FReakers standing on the corner with their "The sky is falling!!!111" signs, we just laugh out loud and walk on by. We have important business to take care of such as running this nation as our Founding Fathers DEMANDED it be run.

We are better than that and there are members and admins here at DemocraticUnderound.com that prove it.

[Flaneur]

12. OP is spot on. Name calling is childish and counterproductive.

[Blue-Jay]

14. That's why you're a doody-head.

[demtenjeep]

15. to quote from the movie "The American President"

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the 'land of the free'? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free.'"

[asdjrocky]

16. Fuck the pugs.

When I'm writing a serious piece, I'll use the real name. When I'm not I'll call the crooked, lying bastards whatever the hell I want to call them.

Maybe when they stop saying the Democrat party, I'll stop.

Until then, the repugs and anyone that is a repug can eat my shorts.

[zonkers]

24. yup.

[OregonBi]

70. Hmmm....

...that reminds me....I am making dinner tonight:

[monmouth]

17. Your post reinforces my gladness at not being married. I'm really

sorry your wife gets offended. Maybe if she stayed off a Democratic forum and read Free Repukelick she'd feel better. Egads!

[Mojambo]

18. Agreed.

We should be better.

[anonymous171]

19. Read this article and never post an OP like this again:

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

[Robbie88]

53. That's an interesting article...

Thanks for posting it.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

62. Kicking for Lakoff. (n/t)

[calimary]

79. Exactly. Required reading for everyone here! Lakoff nails it.

The OP is correct, but only assuming the premise that the game is played fair, the opposing sides are equally balanced, properly trained and equipped, and the playing field is level. None of that is true here. If you don't mount a strong, studied, and well-planned offense, and a constant offense at that, you get your head handed to you. Seems to me if you try to take the high road in this day and age, with the opposition we face - with its formidable infrastructure, the high road leads you over a cliff.

[Bonhomme Richard]

20. But it makes me feel good. n/t

[yurbud]

21. I don't think it is helpful to use most of those terms, but fascist is technically and historically

correct.

Especially when the GOP shows open contempt for democratic processes as they did during the Bush years, and try to stop it altogether as they are doing now.

[zonkers]

22. Fuck that noise. Call em whatever the fuck you want!!!!!!!

[laughingliberal]

23. I don't generally use those terms simply because we haven't come up with any that adequately

describe my disdain for their politicians and spokespeople. 'Republican'ts' is pretty accurate considering their recent behavior but 'Republican' is probably damning enough in and of itself for me.

[Hugabear]

26. That, and "Nazi fucking pig bastards" is just too long to write consistently

n/t

[laughingliberal]

28. ...

:rofl:

[Hugabear]

25. Read this thread, and tell me that you don't feel complete disdain for them

GOP blocks unemployment benefits extension, millions to lose benefits:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7708269&mesg_id=7708269

[Paladin]

27. Completely Unpersuasive. Sorry. (n/t)

[indepat]

30. Though my solitary reference to Republicans has been 'pukes, I resolve to hereinafter

use this term when referring only to 'puke officeholders, those running for office at any level of government on a 'puke ticket, those media and/or pundits who support or shill for 'pukes and their vile agenda, policies and actions, and all others supporting the 'puke agenda, policies, and actions, but inexcusably should have known better, i.e., those who are wholly ignorant through no fault of their own or who have otherwise been innocently blinded by the right will be excluded from inclusion when using this graphically accurate depiction, to wit, our wives are excluded. :P

[libodem]

32. The day they stop with the

'Democrat' party every time they mention us is the day when I'll stop with the invectives.

[quinnox]

33. Sorry, but to alter Du speech for your wife

is not going to happen. And I am one who never uses any of those terms, I always say "republicans". But if people want to use those terms here they have every right to and I understand it. Yea, using terms like that is not the highest art of being intellectual and maybe lowbrow but the republicans deserve it and more.

Maybe she should just not read DU, if it is so upsetting to her sensibilities to see these terms.

[denem]

34. As I said 'This is not personal ... just an illustration'.

[mitchum]

36. She is a fascist enabler...

and will get no fucking pass from me

[tallahasseedem]

48. +1000

[Fumesucker]

38. I guess I could switch to "Spawn of Satan", I already use "Ctheney" so it would be consistent..

:evilgrin:

Seriously, have your wife go to Frei Republik and read what they call Demoncrats .. err. I mean Democrats over there..

[KonaKane]

39. No thanks.

While I love a turn of a good phrase as much as anyone, I will reserve myself the small pleasure of calling these asswipes what they are. If nothing else, it is steam valve on anger.

I do not apologize for that.

[ddeclue]

41. Umm NO...

[KingFlorez]

42. They sure as heck call Democrats uglier names

And I know they won't stop that anytime soon. Politics is not for the faint of heart, you've got to have thick skin to discuss it.

[Zomby Woof]

43. I have some not-so-lazy epithets for her

But will not post them here more out of respect for DU's rules than for your wife, for whom I have no respect.

[quinnox]

44. That is cold

insulting a man's wife on Valentines day! Not cool.

[Zomby Woof]

54. Tough shit

I practice Zero Tolerance for anyone who voted for McCain/Palin, voted for or enabled Bush, Reagan, or any of them criminal fuckstains. Especially someone so cowardly and willfully ignorant as to disguise their crass shallowness and contemptuous anti-intellectualism as "apathy". If she doesn't like politics, she shouldn't vote. People like her do a lot of damage.

As for Valentine's Day, I wasn't aware the day had so much pull that I should exempt someone's spouse from criticism. Politics, like life, is tough - it doesn't take holidays, especially fake ones like Valentine's.

Besides, I said I'd hold back, and I did. If you knew what I really wanted to write...

[treestar]

66. I don't think the Republicans would extend that same courtesy

The OP cracks me up. We should just turn the other cheek while the Republicans insult us.

[mitchum]

72. Would it have been acceptable if Z Woof had just called the poster a repigfucker?

Or would that have also been declasse?

[spanone]

45. i like republiclown myself

[Jane Austin]

46. Why should a forum called "Democratic Underground" conform to the

opinions and wishes of a Republican?

That doesn't make any sense.

I think maybe your wife should refrain from reading here.

[Luminous Animal]

47. I agree.

I find the political slurs extremely childish.

[Biker13]

57. I Have To Agree...

[L. Coyote]

50. With some trepidation about harming a good letter, I suggest simply "R"

Poor "R" was a perfectly good letter until the Republicans did it in :rof:

[tallahasseedem]

52. Then she should stop coming here...

we aren't going to stop calling them what they are because your McCain/Palin Republicon facsist regime supporting wife gets her itty bitty feelings hurt.

[bermudat]

55. Can I say 'repugnantcans'?

Just because you are married to a repugnantcan doesn't give you call

to monitor our speech.

[Blue_Tires]

58. please tell the wifey to check her OWN side first before complaining about us

[DefenseLawyer]

59. Put that coffee down!

Coffee is for closers only.

[Morning Dew]

60. Boo Effin' Hoo

She avoids politics so much that she voted for Palin.



Sorry, can't make myself give a shit about this.

[11 Bravo]

61. Your wife is aware that by voting for McCain she also voted to place Sarah Palin ...

one feeble heartbeat away from the Presidency, is she not? Had that unhappy result occurred; you, your wife, and the entire fucking country, would have a lot more to worry about than how we refer to the opposition party on an internet message board..

[SallyMander]

63. YES. ^^^THIS^^^

People who are willfully uninformed shouldn't bother voting...

[Arugula Latte]

77. Yep. I love the justification for the vote.

Well, yes, she pulled the lever for McCain/Palin, but she only wanted one half. As if they're separable on a ticket like that. And as if voting for McCain is somehow justifiable.

I feel sorry for the OP, having a dumbass partner like that. I couldn't deal with it.

[Terra Alta]

64. I will stop with the insults to Republicans..

when they stop the insults to us.. "Democraps", "Democrat Party", etc.

Perhaps your wife would feel more comfortable on Free Republic? :shrug:

[OregonBi]

67. Oh I see...

...by your logic; Disgusting behavior on their part justifies disgusting behavior on your part?
FFS, I surely hope you never see any of "them" murder someone.

Here is a hint for you; those on the right don't care what you say and will continue with their garbage actions even if you leave the planet!

How about you set the higher standard for all to see and in the process show the world how "WE" are correct and the right team for the nation?

[treestar]

68. You must be one too

Explain why your Republican wife tolerates your views.

it is not in their DNA.

How can you be married to a hater like that? This is a person who despises the poor and blames them for their situation.

[Quantess]

74. No, there are many politically opposite couples.

There is one in my family, even. I have no idea why they are still married.

[JNelson6563]

71. I sometimes apply the well-earned Rethuglican

Ever since the coup in 2000 and that band of Republican thugs showed up in Florida, pretending to be a spontaneous protest for the sake of democracy (tho' "protesting" the counting of votes :crazy:). I thought it rather witty (and MOST applicable!) when the term Rethuglican occurred to me, after commenting on the "thugs" I saw on TV.

They are thugs, they've long been thugs, they are Rethuglicans. Maybe your wife should take a look at the party she is "welded on to" (wtf is that??). And are you seriously asking that the participants on this partisan political discussion board not use disparaging remarks against the adversary/those who have caused near ruin to this country?? Just in case the Missus decides to peruse the forums?

While I agree with your point when in mixed company, or really anywhere out in real life. But here? No, this is where we can let it really rip if we feel like it.

Julie

[Jennicut]

73. My parents are right-leaning independents and I call them Rethug voters to their faces. Oh well.

It is what it is...and they vote for Thugs to me. Disgusting thugs who stole an election in 2000 and all the other crap they have pulled over the years. Sorry, but when we are called Dimocrats, Fascists, Commie-Socialists and Pinheads I think Rethug is not so bad.

[Raine]

75. In a word NO ... "Repigs,Repukes,Rethugs"

and "Repigs, Repukes, Rethugs" they stay.
Sorry about your wife, maybe she needs to leave the darkside and come into the light. :think:

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

81. I personally find the nicknames to be puerile

On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with dressing up the proper names with descriptive adjectives. :D

[JetCityLiberal]

82. Racists.

It is 2010 and there is not one ELECTED African American Republican Lawmaker in the United Stated House or Senate.

If your wife votes for these racist rethugs she votes for a 21st century Racist party.

Period.

Racists, rethugs, repigs. Misogynist bigots too.

It is the 21st Century now.

Peddle that crap at home.

Paul

[t0dd]

83. Republicans are a distraction.

A majority of the problems are within our own party, our leadership, and our system of government. We have huge majorities in Congress that are heavily influenced by corporations. Republicans are just part of the illusion that we have a two party system; in reality, we have a corporate kleptocracy. The partisan bickering only preserves this illusion and benefits the elite ruling class at the expense of the greater population.

[Raineyb]

84. When you lie down with repuke pigs you wake up with rethug fleas.

I see no reason why we should change the nickname at this point. Repukes have no reason calling us all kinds of names and it's bloody obvious they hate all of us. So it's okay for them to show their disdain and we're not supposed to respond in kind? Rubbish!