US Presidential Election 2024: Why Donkeys And Elephants Represent Democrats And Republicans – News18
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US Election 2024: German-born American political cartoonist Thomas Nast popularised the illustrations of donkeys and elephants, representing Democrats and Republicans, respectively, in the 19th Century
While the donkey is not prominently featured by the Democrats as the elephant is by the Republicans, in the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the animal was spotted on merchandise on sale at the party’s website. (Getty Images)
Since 1853, every US President has belonged to either the Democratic Party or the Republic Party. Did you know that the cartoonist behind Santa Claus and Uncle Sam was the one who also popularised the illustrations of donkeys and elephants, representing the Democrats and the Republicans, respectively?
It was Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist at Harper’s Weekly from 1862 to 1886, who drew the cartoon elephant in the magazine that became the symbol for the Republican Party.
About Nast And His Depictions
The renowned American political cartoonist of the 19th Century is best remembered for intricately detailed wood engravings, and tackling the Civil War, the follies of Reconstruction and immigration.
It is suggested that the word ‘nasty’ has been derived from the artist’s surname. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, “It was a time when political cartoons… really had the power to change minds and sway undecided voters by distilling complex ideas into more compressible representations. Cartoons had power.”
Nast fought bullies during his childhood in New York City in the 1840s and 50s. The trauma was reflected in his drawings, with bullies represented in all shapes and sizes and his compassion for victims.
In one of his famous cartoons in 1875, ‘Worse Than Slavery’, Nast drew a defenseless black family cowering before a grinning Klansman. In another, ‘They Are Swallowing Each Other’, “there are no victims, only two bloated, bug-eyed men depicted as ouroboroi”, as per CNN.
The German-born Nast is also associated with another political animal, the ferocious Tammany Tiger, which he famously featured in an 1871 Harper’s Weekly cartoon that attacked New York’s William “Boss” Tweed and Tammany Hall, his corrupt political machine.
How Elephants And Donkeys Became Popular?
In an 1874 cartoon called ‘Third Term Panic’, Nast is credited with showing elephant as a symbol for the Republican Party. The New York Herald, which was backing several Democratic candidates during the mid-terms, had spread the rumour that President Ulysses Grant, a Republican, was planning to run for the third time in 1876, which was not legal until the 22nd Amendment was enforced.
Nast, who supported Republican Abraham Lincoln, “drew Herald as a donkey wrapped in a lion’s skin, frightening the other animals with wild stories of a Grant dictatorship”, as per CNN.
“Like the best satirists, he ridiculed his own side almost as gleefully as he did his opponents’ – and so, he reimagined the GOP (Grand Old Party or Republican Party) as a weak, panicky creature that was constantly lumbering off in the wrong direction, its size more of a liability than an asset,” it added.
In a typical Nast cartoon from 1879, the “stubborn” donkeys were shown dangling by the tail, about to fall into an abyss of “financial chaos”.
Pachyderms As Republicans Before
Nast was not the first artist to compare Republics to elephants. There were advertisements promoting the GOP with the slogan “see the elephant,” an obscure bit of Civil War slang that roughly translates to “fight bravely”. And the story of the donkey in the lion’s skin goes back all the way to Aesop.
Have Either Parties Tried To Change Symbols?
In 1985, The New York Magazine reported that the Democratic Party was trying to drop the donkey. But there is little evidence that both Democrats and Republicans have tried to fully shun the animal symbols.
The Democratic Party’s press secretary, Terry Michael, had at that time said the party was not instructing officials to refrain from using the symbol. Thus, the symbol is still used today.
While the donkey was not prominently featured by Democrats as the elephant is by the Republicans, in the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the animal was spot on merchandise on sale at the party’s website.
The elephant symbol is officially used by the Republicans on their verified social media channels, and the icon is featured front and centre on the party’s website.
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