why democrats have donkey as symbol?
149727
When Andrew Jackson ran for president in 1828, his opponents tried to label him a "jackass" for his populist views and his slogan, "Let the people rule." Jackson, however, picked up on their name calling and turned it to his own advantage by using the donkey on his campaign posters. During his presidency, the donkey was used to represent Jackson's stubbornness when he vetoed re-chartering the National Bank.\n\nThe first time the donkey was used in a political cartoon to represent the Democratic party, it was again in conjunction with Jackson. Although in 1837 Jackson was retired, he still thought of himself as the Party's leader and was shown trying to get the donkey to go where he wanted it to go. The cartoon was titled "A Modern Baalim and his Ass."\n\nInterestingly enough, the person credited with getting the donkey widely accepted as the Democratic party's symbol probably had no knowledge of the prior associations. Thomas Nast, a famous political cartoonist, came to the United States with his parents in 1840 when he was six. He first used the donkey in an 1870 Harper's Weekly cartoon to represent the "Copperhead Press" kicking a dead lion, symbolizing Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had recently died. Nast intended the donkey to represent an anti-war faction with whom he disagreed, but the symbol caught the public's fancy and the cartoonist continued using it to indicate some Democratic editors and newspapers.\n\nLater, Nast used the donkey to portray what he called "Caesarism" showing the alleged Democratic uneasiness over a possible third term for Ulysses S. Grant. In conjunction with this issue, Nast helped associate the elephant with the Republican party. Although the elephant had been connected with the Republican party in cartoons that appeared in 1860 and 1872, it was Nast's cartoon in 1874 published by Harper's Weekly that made the pachyderm stick as the Republican's symbol. A cartoon titled "The Third Term Panic," showed animals representing various issues running away from a donkey wearing a lion's skin tagged "Caesarism." The elephant labeled "The Republican Vote," was about to run into a pit containing inflation, chaos, repudiation, etc.\n\nBy 1880 the donkey was well established as a mascot for the Democratic party. A cartoon about the Garfield-Hancock campaign in the New York Daily Graphic showed the Democratic candidate mounted on a donkey, leading a procession of crusaders.\n\nOver the years, the donkey and the elephant have become the accepted symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties. Although the Democrats have never officially adopted the donkey as a party symbol, they have used various donkey designs on publications over the years. The Republicans have actually adopted the elephant as their official symbol and use their design widely.\n\nThe Democrats think of the elephant as bungling, stupid, pompous and conservative -- but the Republicans think it is dignified, strong and intelligent. On the other hand, the Republicans regard the donkey as stubborn, silly and ridiculous -- but the Democrats claim it is humble, homely, smart, courageous and loveable.
176220
Democrat................................................................................................................ ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
904846
Because democrats are smarter and care about the enviroment. Lets just say, we have a little more brain cells.
164294
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
294898
In its original form, the jackass was born in the intense mudslinging used during the presidential race of 1828 as a play on the name of President Andrew Jackson, the Democratic candidate.\n\nOn January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" revived the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party; it had also been used in the 1830s. Cartoonists followed Nast and used the donkey to represent the Democrats, and the elephant to represent the GOP. The DNC's official logo, pictured above, depicts a stylized kicking donkey.\n\nWhile every political party utilizes the traditional red, white, and blue colors in their marketing and representations, in the media states voting democratic are often depicted as blue while those voting republican are depicted as red.
512001
Chimps do that ... haven't you been to the Zoo?\n\n    Go Democrats~!
624099
Well...what can ypu saY ABOUT a political party that has an ass for it's symbol?
696814
Democrats are not dumb.  I know several who are very intelligent.  They just tend to be like sheep.  They believe everything any liberal says as if it where the word of God himself.  Just look at the garbage on moveon.org and you'll see what I mean.  Don't judge our democratic friends, just help educate them.
674457
You don't need yet another person to tell you that it stands for Grand Old Party, but The Republican National Committee says the acronym dates back to 1875, at which time it meant "Gallant Old Party." And in the early days of the automobile, it gained another popular, although ultimately fleeting, translation: "Get Out and Push" - the treatment early cars often needed.\n\nAs for the Elephant...It dates back to a cartoon by legendary political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who in an 1874 issue of Harper's Weekly, depicted the Democrats as a donkey trying to scare a Republican elephant.
873507
Yes you most have a degree to be a democrat,\n\nI have one and I am not a democrat,\n\nTheir logic is maddening and visceral hatred I hope Kerry sank their political ship again.
972799
I suppose about the same time Republicans realize not all Democrats favor abortion rights.  That's the problem with labels.  They are almost always wrong.
1129199
Little tigers.. no.. because they are sweet. But any idiot can be made to become a democrat
824432
a republican is the elephant and the democrat is the donkey. I alway remember it this way: an elephant(to me) is considered a luxury animal:doesn't do a lot of work, just eats and gets fat. A donkey, on the other hand, is a hard-worker, gets little respect and earns his keep. A republican sterotypically is rich,is interested in big businesses, while a democrat is underpaid, and ready to make change for the better(can you tell which party I'm supporting this election?)
809583
The images were created by newspaper cartoonists.   The parties did not select these symbols for themselves.\n\nThe newspapers selected these images for their negative qualities.   The parties have adopted the images for their positive traits.\n\nSo you can see in this example that the Press has a real impact on the political parties.\n\nThe elephants come from US Grant's era and is related to a bunch of slow moving circus elephants that escaped.\n\nMore interesting is the origin of the Uncle Sam character.
921161
I am a Democrat.\n\nIn 1998, I ran for public office in my town - and won. \n\nWhile campaigning, I never hesitated to display my party logo on my left lapel under the American flag. On all my signs and literature, the word DEMOCRAT was prominently placed for ALL to see.\n\nI challenge anyone who is running for public office to do the same. If a candidate is reluctant to display which party they are aligned to, then I say DON'T VOTE FOR THEM. That is the voter's first sign of a HIDDEN AGENDA.
177367
While I am a Republican, I know many Democrats who have a decent moral compass. The majority of them seem to care quite a bit about the issues you mentioned. I think you answered your own question correctly when you mentioned the Golden Rule. That is a moral code that is easy to understand and apply to real life, yet does not require God (although yes, there are religious Democrats). \n\nHowever, to be honest I know many Democrats (and even people too far *left* to be Democrats) who fail to comprehend morality, and have a morally relativistic "everything goes" code of ethics, and who cannot tell the difference between the minor sins of the US during the Cold War or the War on Terror versus the horrific people who oppose us. (For example, the Abu Graib prison scandal: Yes, clearly it shouldn't have happened, but the people on the other side of this conflict do *much* worse, and never even acknowledge that what they did was wrong--and yet many on the left treat hacking someone's head off with a knife as the equivelent of what happened in Abu Graib... That's pretty good evidence of a lack of a moral compass.) \n\nThe greatest difficulty in answering this question is that, with only (effectively) two political parties in the US, and most people in one or the other, there is no way to answer for such a large portion of the populace. Democrats are perhaps 40% of the population; no doubt with so many in that group there are a whole slew of different moral codes and reasoning among them. This is true for Repubicans too.
452113
Democrats appear unAmerican because that is an APPEARANCE portrayed through Conservative manipulation of media and message. Conservatives are extremely disciplined and they know what they want, they know how they want to go about getting it, and they thoroughly believe what they are doing is worth whatever it takes for them to achieve it. Democrats facilitate this message because we don't know what we want and even if we did we have no idea of how to get there, all we know is we think Conservatives are mean to us and we don't understand why? All the while, Conservatives have gotten the appearance of victimhood for themselves into a science. Just read anything Newt Gingrich wrote or said about the Conservative Revolution. If you stand in the way, you'll have tire tracks down your back.