{"id":22125,"date":"2010-11-02T03:22:16","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T10:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/?p=22125"},"modified":"2010-11-01T12:45:53","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T19:45:53","slug":"nast-thomas-politics-as-usual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/archives\/22125","title":{"rendered":"Nast, Thomas: Politics as usual"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is probably my favorite political image: Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast’s take on New York’s William “Boss” Tweed<\/a> – with money head. Tweed was played by Jim Broadbent in the movie.<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Nast<\/a> (1840-1902) holds the title of ‘father of the American cartoon’ and along the way ended up turning both donkey and elephant into American political icons.<\/p>\n

Prior to Nast’s involvement, ‘It all started with an insult. During Andrew Jackson\u2019s 1828 presidential campaign, his political opponents labeled him a ‘jackass.’ Stubborn as he was, Jackson co-opted the insult and began putting a donkey on his election posters.’ <\/p>\n

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In 1870, Nast used Jackson’s donkey to represent the whole Democratic Party in a political cartoon (above) – followed up in 1874 with an elephant for the Grand Old Party (below)<\/p>\n

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Nast also developed Uncle Sam<\/a> and Santa Claus<\/a> – as well as the prototype character<\/a> used for the Statue of Liberty. <\/p>\n

For more on Nast, go here.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The political animals have been fighting it out ever since.<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto by and \u00a9 John Lund<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sources: World’s Strangest,<\/a> CBR<\/a> and John Lund<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\t

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