Yawn, it's clear you don't know how to read literature from the period. There's plenty of explanation of the phrasing, indeed by the writers themselves in contemporary missives. But you don't really care, you already have your ideology.
Go read any Jane Austen and you'll learn. Even better, the Federalist Papers, or the Adams/Jefferson letters.
Huh?
You're here aren't you? I think that says you consider the tradeoffs worth it.
The communist pejorative has been dead for... Decades and decades. Like 4, at least. By the 80's it had lost its charm, and young adults would roll their eyes when gramps used it.
There are plenty of other similar, (now-meaningless) pejoratives tossed about all the time. It's old and tiresome to hear/see.
I've searched before, do you know why "tankie"? I can't get a good etymology on it, like how it would reference single-party communist states?
Edit: hmm, Guess I missed the Wikipedia entry on it, though I could swear I'd read it before. Thanks Habiscus!
Yawn, this ignorant trope again. Go learn to read 17th and 18th century prose.