The Surprising Story of Democrat's Donkey & Republican's Elephant
Why do Democrats symbolize the Donkey?
Elephant & Donkey, the two unrelated animals now came to mind every four years at the time of the USA election. Does this generation of Americans wonder why Republican’s symbol Elephant and Democrat’s symbol Donkey? Before every election, these two beasts come as political banners, Internet memes, and even in fashion choices. Today I will discuss How and Why these beasts(Elephant & Donkey) represent the two most powerful political parties in the world.
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| Donkey and Elephant describing Democrats and Republicans |
Thomas Nast, a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist, is most responsible for making these two beasts the symbol of the two parties. In January 1870, he first symbolized the democrats as a donkey depicting “A Live Jack-Ass Kicking a Lion”. Nast published the picture in “Harper’s Weekly” That was depicted to undermine the Democrats and Democrat-dominated newspapers in the southern states — named the Copperhead papers. “Donkeys are incredibly resilient, carrying heavy loads over long distances. It earned a reputation for steadfastness and reliability, as a political symbol representing those who carry the burdens of society. Democrats took caricature as a compliment and made the people believe that just like donkeys, democrats would carry the load of the country.
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| "A Live Jack-Ass Kicking a Dead Lion," by Thomas Nast, 1869 |
Over 42 years earlier than that, In the 1828 presidential campaign of Democrat Andrew Jackson signs first ignited. Jackson’s slogan was “Let the people rule”. Historian says Republicans taunt that slogan saying herding a bunch of “jackasses” to Washington. But the war hero Andrew Jackson did not take it as an insult. Rather he embraced the beast and started using donkey as election campaign materials. He was honestly pretty fond of the nickname.
Why do Republicans symbolize the Elephant?
The history behind the Elephant symbol is echos of the same man “Thomas Nast” After depicting “A Live Jack-Ass Kicking a Lion” in 1870, he depicted another caricature “ The Third Term Panic” in 1874, which showed a donkey attired of a lion scaring a group of animals around it even an Elephant. That Elephant was the symbol of Republicans.
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| “ The Third Term Panic” by Thomas Nast Photo: Collected |
Confusingly, The Donkey this time was not about the Democrats but the New York Herald newspaper. The Democrats were shown as a nervous fox, afraid and staying away from the pit.
The question is why Nast depicted this image. In the New York Herald newspaper, Nast was making fun of what he saw as the fear and chaos circulated by an article in The New York Herald editorial. The editorial showed Ulysses S. Grant, who was the President at the time and a Republican as well as a Civil War general Grant was trying to illegally grab more power like the Roman ruler Julius Caesar.
Kat Eschner(journalist) wrote in his article in “The Smithsonian” magazine that-
"Nast was also a loyal Republican, which is perhaps why the Democrats got saddled with a jackass as a popular symbol (the party has never officially adopted it), while the Republicans got the large and relatively noble elephant, which the party did officially adopt as a symbol."
