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[The Donkey and the Elephant] have represented the two major
political parties in America since 1874 when Thomas Nast published the figures
in cartoons.
The parties, in some states, incorporated the characters on
ballots to help illiterate voters recognize where to mark their X. The meaning
of the symbols was a bit more obscure.
It has been said that the donkey represented Democrats
when Ignatius Donnelly, a Republican in the Minnesota legislature claimed,
'The Democratic Party is like a mule-without pride of ancestry or hope of
posterity'.
A candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Adlai
Stevenson linked the meaning of the Republican
party to elephants when he responded, 'The elephant has a thick skin,
a head full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade know,
proceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor'.
Whatever you think of the Donkey and the Elephant, it is hard to
beat the new pacman symbol of the Reform
Party. I will leave it to you to discern its meaning.
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