How the Symbols of U.S. Political Parties Work

A donkey and an elephant are the symbols of the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties, but how were these symbols chosen? Check out our HowStuffWorks article to learn more about the fact and fiction surrounding America's political symbols.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm editor keen to S. Gibson, joined today as always
by Josh Clark. Yes you are, Josh. I'm gonna turn
the tables on you a little bit. I know that

(00:21):
you usually like to ask me questions, but I have
one for you. Okay, what happened to Mordecai. Mordecai the Donkey,
Mode the Donkey. You know, I know what you're talking about.
Morrikai the Donkey, the the official first official live mascot
at the d n C, the Democratic National Convention. He

(00:41):
was debuted in January, right and then dropped off the
face of the planet. Ultimately. To answer your question, I
have no idea what happened to Mordecai. He may have
had an accident in the Grand Canyon that was covered
up by you know, uh, Democratic spinsters. I'm not sure.
I'm hoping Mordecai is okay, but I have not seen,
nor heard hide nor hair from him. If any of

(01:05):
you listening know what happened to Mordecai, I'm dying to
know if that little ass made it the Mile High City.
So especially Barack Obama. If you have time, if you
could just give me a call, that'd be fabulous. UM
and other news there. As far as I know, was
never an elephant slated to appear at the Republican National
I hadn't. I hadn't heard anything about that. It was

(01:26):
all Mordecai and maybe maybe that's what it was. Maybe
you know, Mordecai was going to steal the spotlight and
the powers that be saday. Hey, if if the GOP
isn't going to have an elephant, you guys can't have
Mordecai there. Well, it's equal media coverage. It's actually a
law handed down with the FCC. Is that right, Yes, yeah, yeah,
there there's a loophole here there, but yeah, they they

(01:47):
they have to have equal media coverage four candidates. I
don't know that Um. Other mammals are are involved in
that at all, if they're if the SEC extended it
that far, but it could be a safe bet. I
would say, well, even without the mammals, those things were
zoos enough. There was a lot going on flying around.

(02:09):
So you've been paying attention to the to the conventions
I have, I certainly have the big question, Sarah Palin,
hair up, hair down? Who knows? Yeah, you never, You
never can't tell with her? Ken you no? But um,
did you find a little odd that that there was
going to be a donkey at the convention? Well, I'm
a petting zooficionado, So at any opportunity a live mammal

(02:32):
appears that I can scratch under its chin, that's fine
with me. But yeah, I get what you're saying. I mean,
these things aren't exactly austere ceremonies, but they are pretty serious.
It's a time for a business and so you have
to wonder why a donkey? Why would you lead a
bringing jackass into a national party conventions? We're talking about
mammals at the conventions. Oh wait, yes, so was I right? Yeah?

(02:57):
I see what you're saying. Now, Well you know, I mean, uh,
the donkeys not even the official um mascot of the
Democratic Party. Did you know that? I didn't know that.
But did you know that the GOP actually did at
one point adopt the elephant as its official mascot? True story? Okay,
so um, I had heard actually at one point in
time that neither party created this this symbol. They were

(03:23):
just kind of there and associated with it, and it
all came down to one journalist and editorial cartoonist named
Thomas Nast. Is that factor of fiction, that's it's it's faction,
sort of fact, it's sort of fiction. Thomas Nast. He
was German born. He moved to New York City when
he was six, and New York City has always been

(03:44):
a real center for political and cultural and social hubbub.
And so from a very young age who was infused
and positively you know, swept up and all these ideals.
And he showed artistic talent at a very young age,
and it's sort of awesome into it a great political
cartoonists career. And he certainly adopted the donkey for the Democrats,

(04:07):
but he can't take credit for first as signing that animal,
not with the donkey. Back in eight thirty seven, there
was another political cartoon. I'm not sure who drew it,
but this one depicted President Andrew Jackson, former President Andrew
Jackson really still trying to sway no dead president, yeah, superformer,
super superformer, still trying to influence the Democrats, even though

(04:31):
he had already left the White House. And so the
Democratic Party was portrayed as a donkey and he was
sort of pulling on it. And the donkey is a
stereotypically stubborn animal, and so that showed the dichotomy there
between the lack of influence and the unwillingness to be
influenced and sort of stuck net pick that up and
started using it. Well, he ran with it to a

(04:52):
certain extent. He used the donkey to portray Democratic journalists
and specifically copper Heads. Oh yeah, the anti anti war,
anti union and I think, in Nest's opinion, racist Northerners,
right right right. He was not fond of them at all,
and so a donkey seemed the perfect animal to show,
you know, sort of stubbornly and relentlessly clinging to very

(05:15):
dead ideals. And one of the cartoons that he drew
that featured this um copperhead representation was right after Edwin
Stanton had died, and that was Lincoln's secretary of War
during the Civil War, and it showed the donkey started
kicking his corpse, and it wasn't Edwin Stands corpse, it
was a lion that essentially embodied him. But he used

(05:37):
the donkey to sort of turned the party on its
head and make statements about the press and and really
put the press in a bad light. And another of
his cartoons, it showed the donkey clad in a lion's
costume trying to scare off all the other animals around.
And um, this was back when Ulysses says, Grant was
up for his third term reelection, right right, So the

(05:59):
donkey in that case represented a It was the press again,
wasn't it. It was stirring up the other animals in
the forest. But there was an elephant in that cartoon, yea.
And now that one of the animals in the cartoon
was the Republican elephants. And we're not really sure what
the elephant is supposed to symbolize as far as the

(06:19):
Republican Party goes. I mean, there's certainly generalizations that we
make about elephants. Um, do they really scare easily? Did
they never forget? Um? They have fabulous trunks. Well. And
one of the things I noticed from nas cartoons is
that it's almost like he assigns, uh the attribute he's
looking forward to that either the donkey or the elephant,

(06:40):
based on you know, his his feeling or what he's
trying to convey at that moment. There there doesn't seem
to be any particular part of either of those animals
that he felt embodied the each party, which I mean
really probably by now would have switched anyway, right, because didn't.
Weren't Republicans formerly social liberals in nast time. Yeah, that's

(07:02):
absolutely correct, and now there are social conservatives, yes, generally right. Um.
And one of the more famous instances of the elephant
being used, it's sort of clumsy and it's it's stumbling,
it's about to fall into a pit that's labeled I think, Um,
oh gosh, what is it labeled? Like inflation and chaos

(07:24):
and you know, instant death that kind of thing. Yeah,
that sort of thing. So he did use them to
his man his advantage. And what's interesting about Nash is
that even though he was a journalist he worked at
Harper's Weekly twenty four years I think that was eighteen
sixty two to eighty six, he was not unbiased. You know,
today we would like to think that most journalists are unbiased,

(07:46):
but definitely, um, he was not. He made his opinions
very well known, and apparently the other members of the
press that as well, like the the copper Head Democrat Press,
they I think back in those days, everybody kind of
had their own voice, their own outlet, you know, And
you're starting to see a similar division today, don't you agree,
Where you know, the right has its own news outlets

(08:09):
and the left has its own as well. I think
that's perfectly natural. I mean, people want to read things
that ali'm with their own points of view. And what's
interesting about NaSTA is that he really did levy these
cartoons to work for his advantage. And I don't know
if I'd go so far as to say that his
cartoons were propaganda. I think they were making definitive political statements,

(08:31):
but I don't know that he was trying to corral
people into his corner like a piece of propaganda would,
even though he did create the character of Uncle Sam
that we know very well, and that did grace the
image at least grace the front of a very famous
piece of propaganda that I want you poster. Yeah. And
and also when you look at Nests cartoons, you get

(08:53):
the impression that there's almost like a certain amount of
fury or rage or anger or discussed in them. So
you know, it's kind of the opposite of propaganda. It's
more like, you know, pointing out the stupidity of believing
the you know, believing that the opposite of what Nas believed.
You know, you kind of get that impression as well
from the cartoons. I do, I do. I see a

(09:15):
lot of that latent in them, and I can picture
him at his desk, you know, sleeves rolled up and
furiously working on one of these drawings. And they did
serve a purpose. He actually created a bunch of characters
of Boss Tweed and actually brought down that crime ring.
Not solely by himself, but his art definitely helped indict
Boss Tweed. Yeah, and it is I think Lincoln and
Grant both credited Nast his cartoons with helping them get elected.

(09:41):
So clearly he was having a pretty big, pretty big
impression on people. He was. He even impressed Mark Twain,
a very famous cynic, who commented on his his artwork. Well,
thanks for clearing that up. So it was faction, you said, faction.
That's a new one on me. I like it. Well,
thank you, and um stick around to learn about which
famous symbol graces the walls of Josh's cubicle, and that

(10:04):
would be magnum p I, symbol of all of his brawny,
manly and right with the world. He's the symbol of
my party, the beach bumb Party. Yeah, it is true,
So thanks for telling everybody that. You can read even
more about these political symbols and why are a donkey
and an elephant the symbols of the Democratic and Republican

(10:26):
parties on how stuff works dot com. For more on
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