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[00:01.00]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.
[00:17.71]The two main American political parties are the Democrats and the Republicans.
[00:25.89]They are represented by a donkey and an elephant.
[00:31.43]The reason comes from political cartoons.These are drawings that express opinions about political parties,issues or candidates.
[00:44.80]Perhaps the most famous political cartoonist in American history was Thomas Nast.
[00:53.08]He lived more than one-hundred years ago.
[00:57.21]Thomas Nast used his drawings to show dishonesty and the illegal use of power in government.
[01:07.35]His cartoons helped create public pressure on elected officials.
[01:12.99]In Eighteen-Seventy,newspapers supporting the Democratic Party denounced a former Republican cabinet member.
[01:23.23]Thomas Nast drew a cartoon in protest.He called it"A Live Jackass Kicking A Dead Lion."
[01:34.25]The dead lion represented the cabinet member who was no longer in power.
[01:40.24]The jackass represented the Democratic Party."Jackass"is an old slang word for someone who is stupid or foolish.
[01:52.90]It is also another work for donkey.The image of the donkey had been used many years earlier.
[02:02.94]Democratic President Andrew Jackson usedit as his personal political symbol,after his opponents called him a jackass.
[02:13.86]Then it was used,sometimes,to mean the whole Democratic Party.
[02:19.84]It became established as the party symbol when Thomas Nast used it to represent the Democrats.
[02:28.33]Thomas Nast himself created the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party.
[02:35.07]He first used it in a cartoon in Eighteen-Seventy-Four.
[02:40.60]And he continued to use the elephant to represent the Republicans in many other cartoons.
[02:47.58]Soon,everyone thought of it as the Republican Party symbol.
[02:53.67]Today,after more than one-hundred years,the donkey and the elephant continue to represent America's two major political parties.
