Ask Fear & Greed: Why are Democrats donkeys, and Republicans elephants?

Listener Nikki asks: Why are an elephant and a donkey, the symbols of the Republicans and the Democrats respectively in the US? What do they mean?

Join Sean Aylmer & Michael Thompson as they answer listener questions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Ask Fear and Greed, where we take your
questions and do our very best to answer them. I'm
Michael Thompson, and good afternoon, Sean Aylmer.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good afternoon, Michael, Sean.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Today's question is a very US election themed question. It
has come from Nikki on Instagram and she says, why
are an elephant and a donkey the symbols of the
Republican and the Democrats respectively in the US? What do
they mean? And I thought this is a great one.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
For you because you do love your US politics, though
I do, and I knew half the story, but I
certainly didn't know the full story. So there was a
cart a cartoonist at half As Weekly who's famous in America.
His name was Thomas nast in Ast or nast in Ast,
and there are stories that the word nasty comes from

(00:54):
this cartoonist, Thomas nast Anyway, he was actually the person
who gave those who first drew those political symbols for
the Democrats and the Republicans. He was also in Harper's Weekly,
sort of the person who created Uncle Sam, and also
Santa Claus in the US or the US's version of
Santa Claus, which I think is quite phenomenal. Yeah, So

(01:18):
he was at Half as Weekly for about twenty five years.
He became America's first great political cartoonist and one of
its harshest satirists. The thing is, where did he get
the idea from? Well, it's probably before then. So the
Democratic Party is donkey Originally, it's probably traced back to

(01:39):
the eighteen to twenty eight presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson.
During that race, opponents of Jackson called him a jackass.
So it's not just this campaign people being yelling names
at each other. A jackass and so what did Andrew
Jackson do? I mean, he was a warho this guy.
What did he do? He loved it, So he included
an image of the animal in his campaign posters.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
He decided to lean in, lean in.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's it. He leaned in to the donkey, and then
Thomas Nast or Nast picked it up and ran with it.
So that's that one. The Republican Party that was formed
in eighteen fifty four, it got the elephant a cup
sort of a decade later or so, but Abraham Lincoln
became its first member ever elected to the White House. Now,

(02:26):
an image of an elephant was featured as a Republican
symbol in at least one political cartoon and a newspaper
illustration during the Civil War. This is according to history
dot com. Now, seeing the elephant was a phrase they
used to use. It used to be an expression used
by soldiers to mean experiencing combat. But it probably didn't
take hold of the Republican Party symbol until Thomas Nast

(02:50):
actually picked it up and ran with it, and that
was in about eighteen seventy four. So they have longer
histories both with Presidents Andrew Jackson Democratic Party, Abe Lincoln
for the Republicans. But was this Thomas Nast or Nast
who was a Harpers Weekly columnist and a great political satirist,
who actually gave the form of the donkey and the

(03:14):
elephant as we know today.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Isn't it remarkable to think how influential some people are
that we've never actually heard of.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So this guy was pretty cool. I mean,
not only did he basically he grew up in New
York City in the footies and fifties. Apparently he was
ferociously bullied as a child, and so throughout all his
cartoons there are always bullies of massive size, and they're
always being beaten. The bullies are always being beaten, and

(03:44):
this is kind of what he became known for. And
then of course the Democrat and Republican symbols, Uncle Sam,
Santa Claus, a few things like that. Quite satirist.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
That is amazing. I love, I Love, and ask Fear
and Greed where where we both?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, totally. I had heard of Thomas Nast or Nast.
I had never didn't know the Abe Lincolm and Andrew
Jackson connections. It is very cool.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
That is fantastic. All right, that was a great question. Nikki,
thank you for asking it, and Sean, thank you for
answering it.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I've got to give some well, that's some. I've got
to give all credit to history dot Com, to CNN,
to New York Times. I was chasing up a bunch
of resources on that, so I should mentioned all those.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's fair, all right. Remember if you've got something that
you would like to know, basically, if you've got something
that you would like Sean to research extensively, then send
it on through via LinkedIn or Instagram as Nikki did,
or Facebook or at Fearangreed dot com dot au. Jump
onto the website and send it on through there and
we'll pop your question on the list. I'm Michael Thompson
and this is Ask Fear and Greed