Donkey - Cultural References - Politics

Politics

In keeping with their widespread cultural references, donkeys feature in political systems, symbols and terminology in many areas of the world. A "donkey vote" is a vote that simply writes down preferences in the order of the candidates (1 at the top, then 2, and so on), and is most often seen in countries with ranked voting systems and compulsory voting, such as Australia. The donkey is a common symbol of the Democratic Party of the United States, originating in a cartoon by Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly in the nineteenth century.

The bray of the donkey may be used as a simile for loud and foolish speech in political mockery. For example,

There are braying men in the world as well as braying asses; for what's loud and senseless talking and swearing, any other than braying —Sir Roger L'Estrange

The "ruc català" or "burro català" (Catalan donkey) has become a symbol of Catalonia in Spain. In 2003 some friends in Catalonia made bumper stickers featuring the burro català as a reaction against a national advertising campaign for Toro d'Osborne, a brandy. The burro became popular as a nationalist symbol in Catalonia, whose residents wanted to assert their identity to resist Spanish centralism. Renewed attention to the regional burro helped start a breeding campaign for its preservation, and its numbers have increased.

Proshka, an ass owned by Russian populist nationalist liberal democratic politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, became prominent during the 2012 Russian presidential election campaign, when he was filmed in an election advertisement video. In that controversial ad, Zhirinovsky appeared sitting in a sleigh harnessed with Proshka, then claiming that the "little wretched ass" is the symbol of Russia and that if he would became President a "daring troika" would return as a symbol of Russia instead of the ass; at the end, Zhirinovsky beat Proshka with a whip, made the ass move and had a ride on him through the snow-covered backyard of his dacha.International organisations People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) have accused Zhirinovsky in cruelty to animals. Zhirinovsky replied to the ass-defenders that such kind of treatment is commonplace in the Arab world and that in fact his ass has been treated "better than many people".

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Famous quotes containing the word politics:

    “The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.”
    —Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)

    “In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.”
    —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

    “The newspaper reader says: this party is destroying itself through such mistakes. My higher politics says: a party that makes such mistakes is finished—it has lost its instinctive sureness.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)