Donkey which party

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. In other images, Nast did portray Democrats as a donkey, picking up a symbol that had largely been forgotten after Jackson left office. This image is called "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion," and is the first ever to represent the Democrats — rather than a particular Democrat — as a donkey. The donkey represents Democrat-dominated newspapers in the southern states — nicknamed the Copperhead papers — which opposed the Civil War.

The artist's own political sympathies played an important role in determining which parties got associated with which animals. Kat Eschner, a culture journalist, wrote in for The Smithsonian magazine :.

It was an era when cartoonists had a great power, distilling complex political disputes for millions of readers. So, I decided to do a little research and this is what I learned. Most people know what they represent, but nothing else. Here are some interesting factoids about the why, where and how about the Democratic donkey. The origins of the Democratic donkey can be traced to the presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson.

During that race, opponents of Jackson called him a jackass. However, rather than rejecting the label, Jackson, a hero of the War of who later served in the U. That's all it took for the elephant to become associated with the Republican Party. Democrats today say the donkey is smart and brave, while Republicans say the elephant is strong and dignified. Updated February 28, Infoplease Staff.

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