Never Forget

Today is the anniversary of the day that the elephant was first used to symbolize the Republican Party. It appeared in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.



As you can learn from the link above, this cartoon was Nast's way of scolding Republican voters for letting themselves get frightened into voting against the party by an opposing newspaper. Ulysses S. Grant was running for another Presidential term, and this paper screeched that if he was elected it would be a victory for "Caesarism". Remember last year when papers faithfully repeated the Republican line that if George W. wasn't elected it would be a victory for terrorism? Remember how the Republican party, and a number of Democrats, let themselves be frightened into stampeding toward a narrow Bush victory?

Harper's Weekly published the above cartoon in 1874, and evidently not much has changed.

Benshlomo says, You can lead an elephant to slaughter, but you can't make him think.