It’s become a habit of certain people involved with or interested in politics to use labels to define their opponents. Some are accurate. Some are not.

Let’s take the term RINO. It’s supposedly used to define a non-conservative Republican, a GOP elected official who does not follow the party or conservative line. We’ll use for a RINO definition the ratings of the American Conservative Union. The ACU is the premier conservative organization in the nation and also is the organization that stages CPAC. We’ll stipulate that voting conservative generally follows the GOP mission.

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Two favorite targets of those who bandy about RINO are Senator Mitt Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney. But wait. Romney has a lifetime ACU rating of 77 percent. Which means he votes conservative 77 percent of the time. Cheney has a lifetime ACU rating of 79 percent. So according to the producers of CPAC, who are also the most influential conservative organization in America, Romney and Cheney vote conservative 3 out of 4 times in Congress. How is that not Republican? What we can deduce is that when some refer to RINOs it has nothing to do with the Republican Party or conservatism. It merely means people like Romney and Cheney don’t show, to cult of personality devotees, a sufficient slobbering loyalty to Donald Trump. Thus, a new acronym is in order. My suggestion is RALPs, Republicans Acting Like Republicans. Seems way more appropriate.

Then there is the Fake News canard. Is the press generally very liberal? Yes. Do they make up stories injurious to Republicans and conservatives? Yes. Is it fair and good to call them on it? Totally. However, what is not logical or fair is to label anything you disagree with as Fake News. To do so reserves to yourself a monopoly of truth in all circumstances. Only a lunatic would do that. So yes, it is possible those who disagree with you aren’t making it up. Deal with it.

By the way, if you are actually reading this article good for you. If you feel like a bit of intellectual masochism, then go to the comments section of this piece where you will likely encounter those who didn’t read the piece at all, only the headline, and are still calling it Fake News, among other things. In fact, if you’re interested in academic policy then read the comments section of any online article. There you will see what a disaster American education has been for the last half century.

Which brings us to small d Democrats. Actually, unless you are casting yourself as a proponent of general democratic principles, there is no such thing. It’s a proper noun and thus is  “Democrats”, just as a small r Republican is someone who believes in a republic as opposed to a monarchy. Again, check out the comments section to see what I mean when it comes to small d Democrats. And don’t miss people who consider themselves the apogee of wit by writing Demon-rat, Demo-crap, and Demo-rat or who sublimely express their beliefs by using an emoji that features smiling defecation. Something tells me Oscar Wilde will not rise from the grave and ask these wannabe wags to cocktails anytime soon.