Political Animals
by Virginia Powell
November 03, 2008
Political Animals
As part of our study of elections, both past and present, the sixth-grade classes at Marshall Elementary have uncovered some interesting information about political mascots. Read the following samples of student work to see what we have learned.
- There are three political animals from three different groups. The groups are Divided We Fail, Republicans, and Democrats; the animals are Champ, the elephant, and the donkey. My favorite one is Champ from Divided We Fail. Champ is trying to combine the Republicans and Democrats; he is half elephant and half donkey. Also, he is trying to set aside differences and is encouraging both sides to work together for the good of the country. My second favorite one is the elephant, which represents the Grand Old Party (GOP). The Republicans think the elephant is strong and dignified, and they have a cartoon in the 1874 edition of “Harper’s Weekly” by an artist. My third choice is the donkey for the Democrats. They think the donkey is stubborn, brave, smart, and courageous. The Republicans actually were making fun of Andrew Jackson, a democrat, by calling him a donkey, but he used it as a positive image. Those are my favorite political animals. I hope Champ does combine them so we have one group.
- Did you know there is something called Political Animals? They are a donkey, an elephant, and Champ. First, I am going to talk about the donkey. The donkey represents the Democrats. It is a symbol meaning humble, smart, and courageous. The Republicans adopted the elephant as their mascot. It is a symbol meaning they have strength and dignity. Champ represents an organization called Divided We Fail. Champ represents the organization’s philosophy for the donkey and elephant to come together as one. Now you know the three political animals and what they represent.
- The three political animals are a donkey, an elephant, and Champ. All of them represent something to each party. The donkey is the Democrats’ animal, starting with Andrew Jackson. The Democrats think the donkey represents braveness and smartness. The Republicans think that the donkey is stubborn, silly, and ridiculous. The elephant is the Republican animal, starting with a cartoon in “Harper’s Weekly.” The Republicans think of the elephant as strong and dignified, but the Democrats think that the elephant is bungling, stupid, pompous, and conservative. Champ is both donkey and elephant. He represents a political organization called Divided We Fail. This group wants both parties to work together. Out of all the animals, Champ is my favorite because all together we can make the best decisions.
- There are three major political animals that are used for campaigns in the current U.S. election. They are a donkey, an elephant, and Champ, which is half-donkey, half-elephant. Democrats got their mascot by artist Nast drawing a donkey as President Jackson being stubborn. When Democrats heard about them being stubborn, they adopted the donkey as a mascot, and instead of stubborn, they saw it as brave. Republicans got their mascot when Nast drew an elephant, which is Republican, as stupid. Republicans then, like the Democrats, adopted it as their political animal. There is another political group called Divided We Fail, but it is not as powerful as the other two groups. Divided We Fail’s mascot is half-donkey, half-elephant, or half-Democrat, half-Republican. These are the three animals that play an important role in the 2008 campaign.
