In US politics, few symbols have gained more recognition than the donkey and the elephant. Representing the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, these animals have become regulars in election rallies, news articles, and campaign graphics. But how did these peculiar symbols come to symbolize America’s two major political parties? The answer lies beyond a century ago, an era where satire, the politics of rivalry, and strong pictures could change and shape the opinion of many people along with the politicians’ identity.
Thomas Nast and Political Cartoons as Power
The birthplace of donkey and elephant’s symbols often lies at Thomas Nast, one powerful American cartoonist during 19th century. Nast, of course, worked from 1840 to 1902 is said to have been a master in making these animal caricatures popular at a time when political cartoons wield such power. The drawings rendered complicated ideas into images easily relatable to the general public. His work has been impactful enough that he is said to have won even President Abraham Lincoln himself, a Republican, called him his “best recruiting general” in his own re-election campaign. Nast was a great enthusiast of the Republican Party, and his caricatures supported as well as opposed the political figures, policies, and parties. Apart from the political work, Nast is also renowned for designing the classic image of Santa Claus as a bearded red-garbed man.
The Donkey: The Democratic Symbol
Despite Nast popularizing the donkey as the Democratic symbol, the donkey symbol predates Nast. In 1828, as a Democrat running for the position of president, Andrew Jackson was called a “jackass” by his opposition. Instead of repudiation, the image eventually led to Andrew Jackson stamping the donkey’s face as the symbol for tenacity and will. Thus, it became; over time, the perception that the Democrats had developed with regard to the term jackass evolved from stupid and stubborn to that of being a tenacious animal.
Nevertheless, Nast imbued the symbol with a new satire in 1870. An illustration published in *Harper’s Weekly* drew a caricature of the donkey. His artwork, “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion,” featured a kicking donkey over the deceased Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Many Democrats had attacked this Secretary of War. The political cartoon by Nast said that some Democratic factions are stubbornly rude, sometimes even dumb. Despite some incidents where the Democrats applied this animal to the political arena for their campaign, the Nast cartoon set up its popularity to make the donkey an image closely identified with the Democratic party.
The Elephant: Symbolizing the Strength and the Critics’ Attack of the Republicans
But such a cartoon as “Third Term Panic,” created for Nast in 1874, would forever make an elephant synonymous with the Republican Party. This is because the cartoon arose because President Ulysses S. Grant was, well, rumored to run in a third term – if you remember, a third of one’s life is one lifetime, so that, and of course, Grant is a Republican. Said The New York Herald of reports that that was what he was planning: That will do for a fourth of all the lives of those here. Surrounding the dressed-up donkey were various animals, including a gigantic, lummox-like elephant that carried the name “the Republican Vote.” The elephant was precariously close to falling off a cliff, an analogy for the vulnerability of the Republican Party during these tense political times.
According to Nast’s interpretation, the elephant represented not only strength but also satire. He tended to depict the Republican Party as an elephant of enormous size, prone to panicking and bad judgment. Nast felt that the enormity of the elephant size could eventually prove a burden. The way in which the art piece was used in such a manner underlined the capacity of Nast to criticize the infighting within his party while being on a par with his severity compared to the Democrats.
The Evolution from Satire to Emblems
During the late 19th century, these animal imagery were very much in the conscious minds of the public in terms of capturing their imagination. As John Grinspan, a curator at Smithsonian American History Museum, postulates, these symbols existed at a time when “partisan loyalty was deep-seated.” The strength in the ferocity for animals to fight reflected “the political division of their times,” and both saw the other as a genuine opponent.
However, over time, the symbolism softened. Another curator for the Smithsonian, Lisa Kathleen Graddy, said, “as the political battlefields of Washington cooled, just a bit, so too did the donkey and elephant themselves.” They now “gained softer, rounded edges and seemed less terrifying and more like a cute mascot” than menacing. Still they represented the respective parties but less threatening posturing had softened the outlines of their shapes into simply the iconic logo rather than angry creature.
Political Symbols in the New Context
With political polarization on the rise again in contemporary America, the symbolic donkey and elephant may also rise from their slumber. Today, they are mainly innocuous symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties. But historically, these animals were derived from satire, critique, and political commentary. With shifting politics, perhaps so with the representations of these animals as they acquire new meanings reflecting the divisions or values of the times.
In short, it is while the donkey and elephant started as ironic images used to comment upon party strengths and weaknesses, they have survived as parts of American politics, which are symbols that resonate through the generations, representing the dynamic and evolving nature of democracy in the United States of America.
