I don't get the Elephant and the Donkey party symbols...........

[Joe the Liberal]

We have the Donkey as our party animal and the republikkkans have the elephant but why those animals? I don't get where they came from, what do they symbolize/represent? Why do we have them? What is their purpose?

Also Why do we have the Donkey? why couldn't we have a cool animal like a wolf or a Rhino or a cheetah or something like that? I'll be honest, I'd rather the elephant was our party symbol rather than the donkey, that's just my opinion.

[bluestateguy]

1. The donkey goes back to the Jacksonian era

His opponents, the Whigs, called him Andrew Jackass.

Jackson embraced the label, and was proud of being stubborn,

[Joe the Liberal]

4. LOL no way...........

:rofl: if that's true then that's pretty funny, but what about the elephant?

[sakabatou]

2. There's an old cartoon of a Donkey kicking the crap out of

a lion.



"They say Andrew Jackson had been labeled a jackass by his opponents during the intense mudslinging that occurred during the presidential race of 1828. A political cartoon depicting Jackson riding and directing a donkey (representing the Democratic Party) was published in 1837. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast in an 1870 edition of Harper's Weekly revived the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party. Cartoonists followed Nast and used the donkey to represent the Democrats, and the elephant to represent the Republicans."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)

[question everything]

7. And the elephants

The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol.<11> In the early 20th century, the usual symbol of the Republican Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic rooster. This symbol still appears on Indiana, New York<12>, and West Virginia<13> ballots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)

[Clio the Leo]

3. 'cause if we had a wolf that Palin woman would shoot at us....

... from her helicopter.

[Joe the Liberal]

9. Rofl you're on a roll Clio...........

in my other thread and in this one. :rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

11. I'm all jacked up on Mtn Dew

But you're asking a lot of good questions. All great comedy acts need a straight man to set up the punch line. :-)

[OmahaBlueDog]

5. I agree. Rebranding would be in order

Maybe not losing the donkey entirely, but finding a new symbol to emphasize more that speaks to todays society. Maybe not even an animal, but a native symbol, an F-150 truck, the Space Shuttle ... something.

[Clio the Leo]

12. My suggestion.........

..... KITTENS!

[Joe the Liberal]

14. Lol no way............

we change to kittens and the republicans will go with a rottweiler as their party animal, you know them always trying to out do us! :rofl:

[BuyingThyme]

15. Oh my gosh!

[Joe the Liberal]

16. I GOT IT, our symbol should be a T-Rex!............

Lets see the Republicans try to top that. :P

[BuyingThyme]

6. I think we should be a rainbow trout.

[sakabatou]

10. Why?

The GOP would relabel themselves as bears eating the trout.

[BuyingThyme]

13. Rainbow trout live in beautiful cool streams

high in the mountains. I think that would be good.

Bears are dicks.

[sakabatou]

20. I think the GOP should get the new symbol of

a chicken with its head cut-off.

[damonm]

8. My dear Mother said it best about the Elephant...

...when she was a girl. When another girl in her class (from a Republican family) found out Mom's family were Democrats, she attempted a tease by saying "Democrats got long ears". My Mother replied with:

"Republicans got long noses - and they go around stickin' 'em into everybody else's business!"
Not a bad summation for a 9-YO. (This was 1946.)

[Joe the Liberal]

17. Brilliant.............

She could have also said "Republicans got long noses.......since they lie all the time" (Like Pinocchio)

[Jamastiene]

18. The donkey is to show our stubbornness on what we know is right.

Besides, the saying, "Vote Democrat. The ass you save might be your own." is just too good to go and change it. :)

Supposedly the elephant has to do with having a long memory, but I think it's more representative of the mess Republicans usually leave behind. I mean, they could have used a horse, but an elephant is bigger and therefore leaves a much bigger pile behind it. So, you see, the elephant is probably perfect for them. I would think a giraffe would leave a bigger pile, but does it stink as bad? See, those things come into consideration.

[RepublicanElephant]

19. Political Logos: The origins of the Republicans’ elephant and Democrats’ donkey

"The symbol of the party (the elephant) was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper’s Weekly on November 7, 1874

An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper’s Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol.

Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald raised the cry of “Caesarism” in connection with the possibility of a thirdterm try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant’s second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters.

While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York’s Central Park in search of prey.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper’s Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion’s skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: “An ass having put on a lion’s skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings.”

One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance. Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant."
http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/political-logos-the-origins-of-the-republicans-elephant-and-democrats-donkey/

[annabanana]

27. Thanks for posting that.... fun stuff. . here's the cartoon mentioned

[SPedigrees]

21. All equines are noble animals

including the donkey and the zebra. We should keep our party animal with pride.

However elephants also are possessed of intelligence and nobility. The republicans do not deserve the elephant. We should replace their symbolic creature with a slug or a bacterium or a fungus, maybe a virulent tick or flea, or a parasitic worm of some kind.

[Joe the Liberal]

22. Bwahahahahah agreed..........

"The republicans do not deserve the elephant. We should replace their symbolic creature with a slug or a bacterium or a fungus, maybe a virulent tick or flea, or a parasitic worm of some kind."

:rofl: all too true :rofl:

[chknltl]

23. I know what Republicans should change theirs to:

[snowbear]

24. Someone on here once said....

.
.

"Democrats are sexy... "notice how no one goes after a piece of elephant?"


Democratic Lady


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2008 Freeps Ahoy Cruise


This is where Freeps get together and go on a Carnival Cruise or something to pig out on free buffets for a week..

BTW- I'm not being mean. They actually posted this photo themselves.

[Joe the Liberal]

25. LOL I almost threw up!!!!!.........

I was not expecting the second pic :puke: :rofl:

The first pic is HOT though. :loveya:

[kwenu]

26. Knowledge is refreshing. Get off the internet and Read a book!