Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from China.Zhao Hengyuan asks which animals represent the-two main American political parties,and why.
The two main American political parties are the Democrats and the Republicans.
They are represented by a donkey and an elephant.
The reason comes from political cartoons.These are drawings that express opinions about political parties,issues or candidates.
Perhaps the most famous political cartoonist in American history was Thomas Nast.
He lived more than one-hundred years ago.
Thomas Nast used his drawings to show dishonesty and the illegal use of power in government.
His cartoons helped create public pressure on elected officials.
In Eighteen-Seventy,newspapers supporting the Democratic Party denounced a former Republican cabinet member.
Thomas Nast drew a cartoon in protest.He called it"A Live Jackass Kicking A Dead Lion."
The dead lion represented the cabinet member who was no longer in power.
The jackass represented the Democratic Party."Jackass"is an old slang word for someone who is stupid or foolish.
It is also another work for donkey.The image of the donkey had been used many years earlier.
Democratic President Andrew Jackson usedit as his personal political symbol,after his opponents called him a jackass.
Then it was used,sometimes,to mean the whole Democratic Party.
It became established as the party symbol when Thomas Nast used it to represent the Democrats.
Thomas Nast himself created the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party.
He first used it in a cartoon in Eighteen-Seventy-Four.
And he continued to use the elephant to represent the Republicans in many other cartoons.
Soon,everyone thought of it as the Republican Party symbol.
Today,after more than one-hundred years,the donkey and the elephant continue to represent America's two major political parties.