If you're a Democrat who has debated politics offline or online since the Reagan Revolution of 1980, there are certain words and phrases that have become "hot buttons" - meant to provoke Democrats to have angry fits because they make rational or respectful debate impossible.

Some of these "hot buttons" are relatively new:

• Political correctness (c. 1991): the conservative argument that racist, sexist, and homophobic attacks are completely legitimate, and liberal attempts to rule them "out of bounds" are worse than the attacks themselves. For example, when Don Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's," conservatives think that's perfectly acceptable; when liberals say it's an unacceptable racist/sexist attack, conservatives accuse liberals of engaging in "political correctness," which in their view is more unacceptable than the racist/sexist attack at issue. Obviously this phrase is meant to prohibit debate about the racist/sexist attack itself.

Others are modifications of well-known words:

• The "Democrat" Party (c. 1932): a political epithet used in the United States by some conservative commentators and by some members of the Republican Party in speeches and press releases instead of the name (or more precisely, the proper noun) Democratic Party. Conservatives who use this phrase know full well they are insulting Democrats, and use it deliberately to provoke them (usually while smirking).

While some of these hot buttons are well-known, there are others that are not. Since Democrats.com was created in 2000, certain frequently-used words and phrases have become hot buttons that we discourage our members from using because they impede, rather than facilitate civil debate.

We encourage you to become familiar with these hot buttons so you don't unwittingly antagonize fellow members of Democrats.com.