why do they call it a party?

[greenbriar]

a question raised by my 8th graders today when talking about the political parties of the nation.


then came

why a donkey and elephant...

one smart ass asked if I knew what the other name for donkey was... DUH I wanted to say and then wanted to add that the donkey should be the symbol for the repukes because they are such asses, but alas, I just have to say nothing like that

[elocs]

1. Well, in Massachusetts they call it a "potty". n/t

[virgogal]

4. Uh,uh! In MA we say "paahty"----"potty" sounds like Long Island,NY

[elocs]

10. Well, what would I know living in Wisconsin with our vanilla accent sounding like the news anchors.

Although I have heard it said that people from Wisconsin do have an accent.

[surrealAmerican]

11. No, that would be a "pau-ty"

[aikoaiko]

2. I always wondered why a donkey-- I googled and found we can blame Andrew Jackson's sense of humor

It is a jackass. :shrug:

http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/donkey-elephant.html
The Question:

What is the origin of the donkey and elephant as the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties in America?
The Answer:

The Donkey— Presidential candidate Andrew Jackson was the first Democrat ever to be associated with the donkey symbol. His opponents during the election of 1828 tried to label him a "jackass" for his populist beliefs and slogan, "Let the people rule." Jackson was entertained by the notion and ended up using it to his advantage on his campaign posters.

But cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with making the donkey the recognized symbol of the Democratic Party. It first appeared in a cartoon in Harper's Weekly in 1870, and was supposed to represent an anti-Civil War faction. But the public was immediately taken by it and by 1880 it had already become the unofficial symbol of the party.

The Elephant— Political cartoonist Thomas Nast was also responsible for the Republican Party elephant. In a cartoon that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1874, Nast drew a donkey clothed in lion's skin, scaring away all the animals at the zoo. One of those animals, the elephant, was labeled "The Republican Vote." That's all it took for the elephant to become associated with the Republican Party.

See the official sites of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee for more information.

[msongs]

3. politicans collect their payoffs....errr campaign donations...and party hearty? nt

[panader0]

5. question of the day

It must be hard to maintain a lack of bias as a teacher. Some of my kids teachers give their opinions on politics, right and left, to the kids. I ask them, "Who said that?", but they won't tell because they're afraid I'll complain. (Really, I only did it once,
and that was a teacher who told them to only bathe once a week.)

[greenbriar]

7. some days it is really hard not to just "tell them what I think"

but hopefully, I am giving them the tools to make intelligent decisions on their own

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Oligarchy is too hard spell.

[MissMarple]

8. Two books I recommend to you:

"Grand Old Party A History of the Republicans" Lewis L. Gould.

Party Of The People A History of the Democrats" Jules Witcover.

Additionally, as a current update on our politics: "The Death of Conservatism" Sam Tanenhaus. This will give you a good perspective as a teacher, actually, they all will, especially with eighth graders.

Been there. Didn't have them. :hi:

[Posteritatis]

9. The term came from the idea of partitioning

A party - a political party, a party to a dispute, a party being held someplace - is a division of the larger community in which it is in. The word as used in the having-fun sense actually started showing up some centuries after the original use.