In Spain It is easy to identify which political parties some symbols are associated with, such as the seagull of the Popular Party or the fist and rose of the PSOE. Similarly, in USAcitizens quickly associate the Republican Party with an elephant and Democratic Party with a donkey. However, unlike the elephant, the donkey is not an official symbol of the Democratic Party, although it has been widely used in American politics for more than a century.
The Democratic Party, founded in 1828 to support the candidacy of Andrew Jackson, is the oldest active political party in the world. In its beginnings it represented the interests of slave states and defended territorial expansion, but over time it has adopted a more progressive stance. Since the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, the party has been social policy advocate including access to health coverage, unemployment insurance, and a broader approach to modern liberalism.
Origin of the Democratic donkey
The use of the donkey as a symbol of the Democratic Party Born in Andrew Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1828. Jackson was known for his populist character, and his motto (‘Let the People Rule’) reflected his desire to represent the working classes against the elites. Their opponents, meanwhile, They tried to ridicule him by calling him ‘donkey’due to his stubborn stance and insistence on certain policies.
Far from feeling insulted, Jackson decided to adopt the domestic equid as a symbol of his campaign in United States electionsusing his image on electoral posters. In this way, he transformed it into an emblem that represented his determination and his connection with the common people. During his presidency, the donkey continued to be used by his detractors to highlight his supposed stubbornness.
Thomas Nast’s cartoons
He link between the donkey and the democrats It gained even more relevance thanks to Thomas Nast, the famous 19th century political cartoonist. Nast, who had already popularized the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party, used the donkey in various cartoons to represent Democrats, often in contrast to Republicans.
One of Nast’s best-known cartoons was published in Harper’s Weekly in 1870, where a donkey dressed as a lion was shown scaring others animalsincluding an elephant representing the Republican Party. In another work, published in 1879, he drew a donkey about to fall into an abyss labeled ‘financial chaos’while Democratic Senator Thomas Bayard tried to save the party from a possible economic catastrophe by holding the animal by the tail. The elephant, meanwhile, ‘dyes’ a short distance away, oblivious to the crisis.
This illustration, very different from what we understand today as caricatures, was the first to show the two symbols together politicians in the form of animals, which consolidated their association with the two ideologies.
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