Why are a donkey and an elephant the symbols of the Democratic and Republican Parties?
Posted by staff / November 30, 2011
Why do the Democrats choose to affiliate themselves with an oft-ridiculed member of the horse family? And how did the Republicans, the party of social and fiscal conservatism, come to be represented by an ivory-tusked pachyderm?
The origins of these political images lie in the mind of a German-born political cartoonist named Thomas Nast, whose drawings also helped create modern images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus. Nast joined the staff of Harper’s Weekly in 1862. By the time he left in 1886, he had not only stamped the elephant and donkey as political party symbols, he’d also become one of the most influential cartoonists in American history.
Full article at HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
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