I have been a “cord cutter” for a long time. In its last iteration, my entertainment system relied on an over-the-air antenna and a Tivo with perhaps one or two streaming services. I have also been a big fan of a service called YouTube TV, which not only provides streaming but also offers live television and a sort of hybrid DVR/streaming service that works extremely well. That was as far off the grid as I could stand, and I enjoyed it.
But then my building cut a deal with Spectrum to put 100/100 Internet in our building with cable television. And I thought great, it’ll save me $60 a month that I was spending on Internet. I hadn’t, of course, calculated that once I had the service, I’d want DVR and premium channels as well. The package includes HBO, Showtime, Cooking Channel, and — surprisingly to me the one that I am watching the most these days — Turner Classic Movies.
Lately in the mornings I try to put C-SPAN at least in the background, but there’s no Congress this week, so it’s been MSNBC instead. As such, I caught something on Joy Reid’s “A.M. Joy” yesterday that may make her show a weekend staple for me. It was fabulous.
Essentially, Reid had among her panel a person identified as a “Republican strategist.” And this person referred to something called the “Democrat Party.”
And Joy Reid CORRECTED HER.
And, apparently, it’s not the first time. Here she is correcting a guest previously:
Everyone should do this. Everyone. Chris Matthews should. Rachel Maddow should. Thom Hartmann should (I believe I’ve heard him do this, in fact). Chuck Todd should. Nancy Pelosi should. Everyone who gives even a teeny tiny shit about the Democratic Party should take the time to correct this linguistic idiocy, each and every time.
It was a bit on the nose, too, that as I watched this happen yesterday, they were talking about Rep. Justin Amash’s recent announcement that he is leaving the Republican Party while complaining about factional tribalism in American politics.
Because how can we possibly restore more civility to our civic matters when one of our major political parties regularly employs a known bullying technique of disparaging the opposition by withdrawing the respect to even call it by its proper name?
How can we even talk to each other when you insist on “Democrat Party?”
Dear Punditry: Do more than correct these troglodytes. Call them out. Ask them why they do it. Make them explain it. Shame the fuck out of them. Because every time a Democrat hears “Democrat Party” and blinks their eyes and allows it to shoot into the Jet Stream, it is a pinprick of a victory that your opponent did not earn. You know it’s bullying. You know it’s a flaming bag of shit on your porch.
Put a stop to it.
Be like Joy.