COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Amid calls to dial back hyper political partisanship, two letters are among the obstacles standing in the way. Republicans routinely drop the “i-c” when referring to the Democratic Party or its policies. The practice defies grammatical accuracy and the Democratic Party’s legal name. Experts say conservatives use it to irritate or even dehumanize the other side. It was even used by the lawyers who defended former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial. The precise origins of the phrasing are unclear, but Republicans formalized it during the McCarthy era, citing a worry that Democrats would claim a monopoly on small-d democratic values.
