Good Morning...Dems become Donks

[Okla-homey]

January 15, 1870: First appearance of the Democratic donkey

http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/38975/2002101247458882041_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002101247458882041)

138 years ago today, the first recorded use of a donkey to represent the Democratic Party appears in Harper's Weekly. Drawn by political illustrator Thomas Nast, the cartoon is entitled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion."

http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/42024/2002176373764953756_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002176373764953756)
The cartoon that started it all

The jackass (donkey) is tagged "Copperhead Papers," referring to the Democrat-dominated newspapers of the South, and the dead lion represents the late Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war during the final three years of the Civil War.

In the background is an eagle perched on a rock, representing the postwar federal domination in the South, and in the far background is the U.S. Capitol.

http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/38975/2002159860744735446_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002159860744735446)
Right here in the Sooner State, Frankoma Pottery of Sapulpa has been making a donk mug every year for Donk lovers since 1960. They also make an elephant mug BTW

http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/40269/2002108997791381086_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002108997791381086)

Four years later, Nash originated the use of an elephant to symbolize the Republican Party in a Harper's Weekly cartoon entitled "The Third-Term Panic." The cartoon referred to the disparaging response by The New York Herald to the possibility that Republican President Ulysses S. Grant might seek a third-term.

http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/39850/2000247900203499295_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000247900203499295)
Third-term Panic

The New York Herald is depicted as a donkey wearing lion's skin labeled "Caesarism." This bogus lion is frightening several timid animals identified with the names of opposing newspapers, such as The New York Times and The New York Tribune, while a berserk elephant, labeled "Republican vote," is tottering above a chasm labeled "Chaos" as it tosses to the right and the left the few remaining platform planks holding its weight.

The caption of the cartoon reads: "An *** having put on the Lion's skin, roamed about the Forest, and amused himself by frightening all the foolish Animals he met with in his wanderings."

http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/39591/2002103972108127616_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002103972108127616)
The Donks fancy themselves as the party of inclusion, peace, love and harmony

http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/39818/2002189174858166048_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002189174858166048)
pretty much sums up the Donk platform nowadays

http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/41022/2002143571557960574_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002143571557960574)
Okie Donks (and Elephants) get a chance to pick their party's presidential candidate on Feb. 5. The last day to register to vote was Jan 11. If you are registered, get out there and do your civic duty. If not, then no fair b1tchin' and moanin' about who your party selects to elect.

http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/40128/2002113740801870761_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002113740801870761)

[SoonerStormchaser]

And they've been royal jackasses ever since! ;) :rolleyes:

[King Crimson]

so, we are veering into opinion pieces even more than usual these last two days? ;)

[Okla-homey]

so, we are veering into opinion pieces even more than usual these last two days? ;)

Newsflash my man. No historical treatment of any subject is evar completely objective. That said, responsible historians, even amatuer's like me, try to be at least somewhat objective. Anyhoo, people can always find something that offends their sensitivities in an history treatise. It's impossible to cover a subject, unless you simply type bare facts a-la Joe Friday...and that, is boring as all get out. For the reader and the writer.:D

[frankensooner]

I say you are wrong as the first time it was used was when Jackson was running for President and his opposition tried to tie him to the Donkey as an insult, whilst sitting in the their mansions drinking tea with their pinkies extended, what they didn't realize was the working man relied heavily upon the lowly donkey and Jackson seized upon this and used it on his posters.

The Dem web site also confirms this:

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/06/history_of_the.php

You are correct in that the first time it was used in a political cartoon was on this date.