Look at the Logo.

Politics aside; the candidates; campaign slogans, negative advertisements and rhetoric; all combine to become an endless mish-mash of he-said, she-said muckraking and calculated promising. This country's two political parties are much like corporate rivals with the same product. Like most companies’ strategies, when the product seems old and standard to consumers, there's nothing like shaking up the look of the business to get people thinking about the products. After 2000 and 2004, the Democrats needed that and with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, M.D. behind the desk of Dems. head office, C.E.O. Dean got the ball rolling a few years ago. He started with a look at the two parties’ logos.

You look at the elephant of the G.O.P. and one word comes to mind: solid. Look at it. No movement can be seen in it. It’s an orthodox, steady-as-a-rock, and unmoving symbol. It also shows the opulent, bloated form of that which it represents: grand, old, pride.

Knowing this (as we can only presume that the many, very intelligent men and women that go into political work can be presumed to be,) a comparison with the symbol of the Democratic Party is needed. It also conjures the thought of a featureless, boxy, conventional, and uninspired representation of a group full of the beaten and demoralized.

Then, something happened. Someone looked at the donkey and realized what a pack horse does when its legs are kicked out from under it. It shakes off the fall, gets up, takes on its burden and kicks.

It kicks hard. It kicks out with the force of all its weight, frustration, anger, pleasure and more. It kicks out at the air, the sky, the nearest sound, and the dust. It kicks out ignoring the pain, the pride and even the power that it creates. The donkey is a lean, smooth and powerful animal. The donkey works hard and is smarter than any horse could dream of being. The donkey is not interested in its look so much as its work; but when you look at it the right way, when someone points out it’s wonderful qualities and loyal work ethics, you see it’s a beautiful animal no matter what happens.

This symbol was chosen for these traits. Its loud, well-developed voice can be heard for over three kilometers. They have larger ears than horses or mules. Thank you Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly for both symbols. Kicking a lion in the past, we know now to kick a stagnant feeling in the present… so we can kick on in the future.