The Elephant and the Donkey

I would like to share with you all how the Elephant and the Donkey came to be symbols for the two major parties.

This symbol of the party was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874. An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper's Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol.

Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a thirdterm try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant's second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters.

While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings."

One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance. Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.

--From William Safire's New Language of Politics, Revised edition, Collier Books, New York, 1972

Meeting an Opponent

Last night while setting up the booth for the Sarpy County Republicans at the County Fair I had an opportunity to meet the incumbent, Senator Kopplin.

I have to say it was a pleasant conversation and we seemed to have, at the very least, established the beginnings of a "Positive" dialog. Today there seems to be more of a focus on tearing down a person rather than just saying what you are about. I think the past dozen years or so we have seen a remarkable turn for the worse in basic civility. I feel our forefathers would look at how today’s political activities are conducted and wonder what and where it went wrong. It isn’t a matter of not being able to have differences of opinion or enthusiastically defending ones position, but rather the manner in which one goes about their business.

I do not believe I am defined by tearing down my opponent. Senator Kopplin seemed to me to be a good and decent man. As I said earlier I found it easy to talk to him and the conversation was enjoyable. There were no harsh words about or to either of us or the other candidate in the race. I look forward to the next time I meet Senator Kopplin and have an opportunity to discuss our views on the issues facing the 3rd district and Nebraska.