I’ve always found it interesting that the two major political parties in America are represented by animals: the elephant for the Republican Party and the donkey for the Democrats.
The Republicans, the Grand Ole Party, saw the elephant as a symbol of strength, dignity and intelligence. Its use in representing the party may also have been inspired by the Civil War soldiers’ phrase “seeing the elephant,” which meant actually experiencing battle during the war rather than watching from the sidelines. The GOP was engaged in the war against slavery.
The donkey’s use as a symbol of the Democratic Party came from the 1828 presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson. During that race, opponents called him a “jackass.” Jackson’s enemies were perhaps hoping to attach some of the negative qualities of the donkey to him, like mindless resistance, stubbornness and sometimes downright meanness. Jackson, however, was amused by the comparison and used the image of the lowly equine in his campaign. The comparison stuck, and the donkey became the symbol of the Democratic Party.
I can see those animal behaviors coming out in both parties in this year’s presidential campaign.
At times I’ve thought the GOP elephant has been a little too dignified in not fighting back harder against some of the double standards of the current Democratic administration.
Donald Trump’s boxes of government papers locked up in his own house required an FBI raid and legal action. Joe Biden’s boxes of classified documents stuffed into his garage were just the “oopsies” of a delusional old man. The Dems pushed the “Russian collusion with Trump” lie for years after it proved untrue. Documented Ukrainian and Chinese payoffs to Biden for his influence in international politics is still being shoved under the rug. And on and on.
The Republican plan for America’s future reflects the intelligence attributed to the elephant. Their plans make sense, in other words. Very little of the Democratic vision makes sense to me or takes economics into consideration.
Maybe I’m supposed to see the Dems with the donkey’s trait of being hard-working, but I can’t see that. What I see is Biden on the beach in Delaware lame ducking his responsibilities while the world burns. But then, of course, he’s been put out to pasture by his own party for his total ineffectiveness.
Kamala has no visible history of hard work or leadership either. The only thing I ever saw her do was read a prepared speech (prepared by someone who can put two sentences together to make a point, which she can’t do), and I saw her introduce a couple of winning sports teams.
The only items on her platform so far are things she copied from Donald Trump: no taxes on tips and “let’s build a border wall.” I guess her handlers are waiting for Trump’s next idea before they can finish Kamala’s plans for our future.
Her economic promises sound great— $25,000 to first-time homebuyers, $50,000 to start a new business, $6,000 for each newborn child in a family, I hate to be cynical, but I can hear the scammers already licking their chops.
But these plans are just so much donkey fodder anyway, unless she can tell us how we’re going to pay for them without massive tax increases.
Billions of tax dollars are already being directed toward supporting the illegals who have flooded in on Democratic promises to make them welfare dependents. This is an expense that isn’t going away unless the illegals go away, especially if Border Czar Kamala becomes president and leaves the nation’s doors wide open as she has for over three years.
But only a $750 “loan” to victims of Hurricane Helene?
With donkey stubbornness, Kamala continues to push the old Democratic solution: Make the rich pay their fair share. That’s a solution that tickles the working class, but it isn’t going to happen. The “rich” will do what they did before Trump— they will close businesses here and move overseas to avoid taxes. The “rich” pull the strings in Washington and aren’t going to allow their bought politicians to pass laws increasing their taxes. The “rich” are people like Kamala and Poleis and Biden and their supporters like Taylor Swift and George Clooney, who have the loopholes that hide their money.
As usual, the rest of us working donkeys and elephants will be stuck with the bills.
Elephants have another characteristic that I think will come into play here: elephants never forget.
We’ve seen the actions and intentions of the Democrats for the last four years. Kamala and crew are hoping we’ll forget all that and fall for their new promises.
Unlike the Civil War soldiers, Kamala has never “seen the elephant.” She has never engaged in the war of leading the nation.
We elephants won’t forget all that.
