By Rich Rickaby
The elections are coming! The elections are coming! Be you a Republican, Democrat, Independent or somewhere in between, the upcoming election cycle is sure to fill your airwaves with fact, fiction, rhetoric and polls.
All that aside, I thought I’d look into the history of two of the most recognizable political logos ever, the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant.
Like most, I knew which was which but I didn’t know why. I mean really, a donkey? Why would anyone want a jackass to be their mascot? And an elephant? OK, they never forget but they’re also a bit large in this time of obesity awareness and when you talk about the elephant in the living room, well, enough said there. In an odd sense of bi-partisanship, it turns out that both logos were created by the same person, Thomas Nast (He also gave us the 1871 drawing of St. Nicholas).
Last year, 2010, the DNC unveiled a new logo, the light blue D in a blue circle. The reaction to that was underwhelming and seemed to draw out typical partisan disputes along party lines. The only thing agreed upon was that it wasn’t Bush’s or Obama’s fault.