A pet peeve of mine, muchly!
It 'softens' the evil of just plain democrat as well.
Subtly.
Right... another context where this peeves me:
Foreign policy scholars, human rights advocates, social historians and critics always use the term “Liberal-Democratic” to describe the holy grail of fair and equitable self-governance - the ideal that all government administrations should be aspiring to.
I’m sure they intend the very best connotations for the words “liberal“ (free and tolerant) and “democratic” (government by the people). But isn’t it interesting how closely those two words are associated with the Left?
Isn’t it interesting how one never hears social critics, civics professors or human rights reformers advocating “Conservative-Republicanism”?