Why Is a Donkey the Democratic Symbol?
29 SEP 2017
CLASS
![The donkey has commonly symbolized the Democratic Party since the 19th century.](/public/images/logo-fallback.png)
Although the Democratic Party in the United States has never officially adopted the donkey as its symbol, political cartoonists have associated Democrats with the donkey since the mid-19th century. Both Democrats and Republicans have used the association between the donkey and Democrats to their political advantage in campaigns.
1 Origin
![President Andrew Jackson](/public/images/logo-fallback.png)
During Andrew Jackson's campaign to become president in 1828, his opponents called him a "jackass." Jackson considered himself a man of the people and accused John Quincy Adams of being an elitist. When Adams' campaign called Jackson a jackass, he embraced the imagery, putting donkeys on campaign posters and touting his "stubbornness" as an asset in battling corruption and elitism.
2 Thomas Nast
![Thomas Nast](/public/images/logo-fallback.png)
A political cartoonist used a donkey to represent the Democratic party in 1837, but Thomas Nast, a famous political cartoonist in the 1870s and 1880s, cemented the relationship between the Democratic party and the donkey in his cartoons for Harper's Weekly.
3 Meaning
According to the Democratic Party website, Democrats celebrate the donkey for its determined and brave nature, while the Republicans see the donkey as intractable and foolish.
4 Modern uses
![Donkey](/public/images/logo-fallback.png)
For the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the Democrats chose a live donkey named Mordecai to be their mascot.
5 Alternatives
![Rooster](/public/images/logo-fallback.png)
Since the mid-1800s, Democrats, both locally and nationally, have used other symbols, such as the rooster and the tiger, but none have had the staying power of the donkey.