A Republican-to-Democratic Dictionary

By Daniel Rigney

Here's your handy guide to translating Republican rhetoric into Democratic rhetoric. In each instance we’ll give the Republican term and supply its nearest Democratic equivalent. In some  instances there is no exact Democratic translation of a Republican word or phrase, because the two vocabularies articulate fundamentally different interpretations of the same shared world, flowing from differing core values and worldviews.

You may wish to make your own contributions to this glossary in your comments.

Bureaucrat: a civil servant

Obamacare: The Affordable Care Act

Confiscatory Taxes:  any taxes rich Republicans don’t want to pay

Right to Work Laws: right to work for less laws* 

States’ Rights: opposition to civil rights for all Americans

The Global Warming Hoax: global warming

The Second Amendment: the second half of the Second Amendment, deleting the "well-regulated militia" part.  (The latter excision is also known as the Scalia Deletion)

Economists: Milton Friedman and The Wall Street Journal

Unbiased Media:  the Fox News spin machine

Christianity: Christianity’s theocratic right wing

Feminazis: participants in the movement for women’s rights

Economic freedom: unrestrained corporate capitalism

Redistributionism:  when advantages are distributed downward. When advantages are redistributed upward, Republicans call it "job creation."

Citizens United:  plutocrats purchasing government. (This is also known as the Scalia Redistribution.)

Democratic Class Warfare: opposition to Republican class warfare against working people since Reagan

Gubment:  government

The Democrat Party: The Democratic Party

Socialism: liberalism or progressivism

Fascism:  liberalism or progressivism

Godless secularism: liberalism or progressivism

The Anti-Christ:  President Barack Obama