Ever wonder why the Republican and Democratic Parties’ symbols are what they are? Not what you might think—like maybe the stubborn, stand-for-what’s right donkey or the huge, powerful elephant. Here’s a bit of American trivia.
In 1828 the Democratic donkey was “born” during the 1828 Presidential campaigns. Candidate Andrew Jackson’s opponents didn’t like him much, so they called him a “donkey,” and the label stuck to his party. Later, in 1874, Thomas Nast, a satirical cartoonist, drew a cartoon of an elephant and gave it the caption of “the Republican vote,” and, again, the symbol stuck to the party.
In other words, the labels came about not because they symbolized anything in particular but because they made fun of or criticized a party or their candidate.
Personally, I think both parties today are acting like animals, but I can’t quite identify which species.
