why is the democratic sign a donkey?

Question

reasons, beliefs, etc

Answer 1

The Origin of the Democratic Donkey


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.


The 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 ***."


Interestingly 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.


Later, 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.


DEMOCRATIC DONKEY


By 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.

Answer 2

I'm not really sure because I'm a Libertarian. Some think that Libertarians are very annoying because they won't adopt an animal to represent their party. Here's what they think of the ones that have done so:

Democrats - Donkey:
-- To not make the jackass comparison would be ignoring the elephant in the room... so there it is
-- Stubborn... enough on that
-- It takes great patience to be around them, even more to work with them
-- The mean ones will kick you in the teeth; the others do it without thinking
-- It's easier to forgive one, you knew they were a jackass to begin with

Republicans - Elephants:
-- Platform resembles elephants breeding
---- much bellowing, trumpeting and stomping around
---- it all happens in high places
---- takes about two years to produce any results
---- being in their way can be very dangerous
-- When they crap on something, they really crap on something!
-- They drink a lot... possibly to forget
-- Wrinkles!!!

Answer 3

because predential candidate Andrew jacson was the first democrat ever to be associated with the donkey symbol

Answer 4

What are the two main traits of a donkey? Stupidity and stubbornness

Answer 5

so that they would not be at a loss for words with those fat-butted grasping Republican's who've the right image, a wide pachyderm that devours each and everything in sight and cares little for something else except that is personal, on the fee of each and everything and all of us else!

Answer 6

Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson political opponent, kept calling him a jackass. So they adopted that as there symbol.

Answer 7

Because:
#1. they are stubborn
#2. it is a southern thing.

Answer 8

They are the party of A$$ES

Answer 9

Democrats tend to be very stubborn and unreasonable...........

Answer 10

for obvious reasons.........................