Republicans why elephant

As anyone with even a passing interest in US politics knows, the elephant represents the Republican Party and the donkey the Democratic Party. What is less well known is how the animals came to adopted as symbols for the two biggest political forces in the US.

Jackson a brash, combative populist, whose campaign slogan was "let the people rule. But to Republican opponents, he was "jackass" — which had more or less the same meaning then as it does now.

Jackson, though, was actually pretty fond of the nickname, and used it during the campaign to cement his reputation for determination. It satirises Jackson's attempts to get the Bank of the United States to redistribute funds to "branch" banks in various states.

In the image the president is depicted as an ass, who causes chaos by galloping into a group of chicks, representing the US financial system. Jackson was a staunch opponent of the institution that was later to become the Treasury, which he thought was corrupt, and accused of cutting off investment for the westward expansion of the US.

It was German-born cartoonist Thomas Nast — a Republican — who really popularized the two symbols. The cartoon depicts a donkey dressed in lion's clothing, scaring a group of animals around it.

An elephant represents the mighty Republican vote, stumbling into a hidden pit. Nast was satirizing was what he saw as the panic caused by an editorial in magazine The New York Herald, which accused then-President Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican and Civil War general, of "Caesarism. The article claimed Grant was attempting to illegally seize more power — like the Roman ruler Julius Caesar — by apparently gearing up to campaign for an unprecedented third term.

The Democrats are represented as a skittish fox cringing at the edge of the pit. The donkey has become the common symbol of the Democratic Party. The figure was popularized in the s when it was frequently featured in the cartoons of Thomas Nast. The elephant is a widely recognized symbol of the Republican Party. The Republicans have embraced the elephant as their official symbol and still use it in campaigns today. Live TV.

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