i believe it started after a commercial they were whining about that had a text crawler across it that when the commercial ended only said RATS
Posted on 09/15/2011 6:26:04 PM PDT by C210N
Is it possible that Patrick Henry was the first to refer to democrats as 'rats, well before the time of establishment of the democratic party?
I prefer DEMOCRAPS!
I don’t know but I was thinking about that recently.
It’s a wonder they don’t change their name. They like changing things.
Especially words.
It must be so demeaning to be called a RAT but hey, if the name fits...
It’s actually ‘DUMOCRAPS’..
The Rodentry.
But Patrick Henry was one of the Anti-Federalists, a faction that eventually became the Democratic Party.
That's my memory, anyway--others may recall earlier references but if so it wasn't common usage as it is now.
The Republicans ran a TV ads years back...
On the screen it said “Democrats” and it zoomed in on the words till all you saw was the letters “rats”
The Dems screams the Republicans were running subliminal advertising call them “RATS”
Well around here it became the custom after the ‘Rats objected to a GOP ad (was it during the first Bush campaign) in which the word DEMOCRATS ran across the screen in a slow crawl as dire critiques of their policies were read out. They complained because there was a moment when only the last four letters appeared on the screen, and they claimed it was an attempt to make a subliminal association between Democrats and rats. They’d been called ‘Rats ever since.
(Kind of like the way “clymer” came to have its current meaning.)
Okay I had forgotten some of the specifics but yeah, that’s it.
But, at the time there was no 'rat party, and he was concerned of the potential largesse that would become a national government - elements of today's 'Rat party. Only irony that he would be part of the early 'Rat party of the day.
In Genesis 1 11, God gave Adam the right to call rats, rats.
That’s when I picked it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NPKxhfFQMs
That's my recollection, also. I started using 'Rats and 'Rat Party at that time.
i believe it started after a commercial they were whining about that had a text crawler across it that when the commercial ended only said RATS
Here's Elbridge Gerry in the First Congress:
MR. GERRY did not like the term National, proposed by the gentleman from Virginia, and he hoped it would not be adopted by the House. It brought to his mind some observations that had taken place in the Conventions at the time they were considering the present constitution. It had been insisted upon by those who were called anti-federalists, that this form of government consolidated the union; the honorable gentleman's motion shows that he considers it in the same light. Those who were called anti-federalists at that time, complained that they were in favor of a federal government, and the others were in favor of a National one; the federalists were for ratifying the constitution as it stood, and the others did not until amendments were made. Their names then ought not to have been distinguished by federalists and anti-federalists, but rats and anti-rats.
Back then, the federalists were the ones centralizing as much power as possible, so they were like democrats in that regard.
ME! (You’re welcome.)
No the irony actually would be that the Progressive democrats and Confederate democrats were part of a natural progression. The southerner, Woodrow Wilson was sympathetic to the Confederates, swept the Confederate south in both elections (to celebrations in the south) and the Progressive democrats even revived the Confederate created KKK as well.
The large populist movements of the Confederate south even combined with the democrat party and its new progressive movement.
The commercial Democ-RATS.
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