the donkey vs. the elephant..

i've finally gotten my girl interested in politics, and she asks alot of good questions. she asked me one tonight though, i could really answer...why did the democrats choose the donkey and the republicans choose the elephant?

i told her that the donkey represents the working man haulin the load, and the elephant represented the big bloated rich republicans..after some thought though, i realized that i had a bit of a bias, and probably wasnt close at all. anyone know?

[edit on 29-7-2004 by sublime4372]

you're right, you do have a bias. at least you admit it. sorry i don't know the answer as well.

If my history is correct:

There was a cartoonist in the 1800's who made a political cartoon making fun of both parties. In it, he used a donkey for the Democrats, and an elephant for the Republicans. I don't know the man's name, or why he chose those two animals, but the political cartoon was so popular that the two parties just chose those animals as their mascots anyway, and made up their own explanations for why they used their animal, and why the other used the other animal... someone help me fill in the gaps here, I can't remember any more than that!

Republican point-of-view:
elephant = powerful, but kind, wise
donkey = dirty loud smelly jackass

Democrat point-of-view:
donkey = hardworking, gets little credit for its efforts
elephant = fat (rich), territorial, tramples on others

Ironically, back in those days, the Democrats were the philosophical conservatives (fought slavery, and once it was gone, publicly endorsed Jim Crow laws, etc.) and Republicans were the philosophical liberals (abolitionists, fought for womens' right to vote, etc.)

...Somewhere in the 1960's both parties just literally up and switched philosophies. Someone exlpain to me how that happened!?!

Jackson and the Donkey...

Donkey History


Republicans and the Elephant

History of the Elephant

Originally posted by ThunderCloud
...Somewhere in the 1960's both parties just literally up and switched philosophies. Someone exlpain to me how that happened!?!

The free love 60's ended up with the donkey and the elephant having their own
little "mattress moment", the result is what we have today, and since the beast was so frightening they decided to keep their particular symbols.

The result of their free love experience?..............Chupacabra