Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I've been reading Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct" and, if I understand what he is saying about practices like this, the adjective rule may not apply. (Think of Democrat as a brand name, like Kleenex or Xerox or the name of an airline and you'll see the pattern that is perfectly applicable here.)

In these cases, the conversion of a proper noun is not required (and I noticed that you did nothing with Republican) and it would not be acceptable. In this case, applying the word woud change "Democrat" to "democratic" and confuse the whole thing. Both parties are capable of making democratic proposals.

Doing what makes sense to preserve reference to the proposal as one by a group or organization is probably just fine.

It is not inherently denigrating, though some might be taking/using it that way. It's a form of common sense.

The fact that it is called "The Democratic Party" but its members are known as "Democrats" and its elected members are listed that way is something that we just get to live with.

[Yet-another comment test.]