AHC: What animals would represent these political parties (USA)?

OK, thanks for the options. What animal represents the Green Party? or which of the mentioned parties would these animals have ?:
* Lion
* Bear
* Cougar
* Rooster
 
OK, thanks for the options. What animal represents the Green Party? or which of the mentioned parties would these animals have ?:
* Lion
* Bear
* Cougar
* Rooster
a lot of people like bears, and bears are often regarded as having human qualities,

however, bears are also often viewed as clumsy
 

samcster94

Banned
a lot of people like bears, and bears are often regarded as having human qualities,

however, bears are also often viewed as clumsy
Lion seems obviously a good animal for a party that either wants monarchy or some Federalist type party in the early 19th century.
A Cougar might work for a left-wing competitor for the Democrats that is much more "small tent".
Rooster would be great for a party like the Libertarians.
As for bears, I guess as secular hawkish party could use them, especially in a timeline where the U.S. is friendly to Russia, especially a democratic Russia.
 
Don't forget the Whig Party's unofficial symbol: the coon.

ThatSameOldCoon.jpg
 
Is that from what certain Democrats believed to be the (Northern) Whigs' cause celebre?

(i.e, the racist term for a black person)

No. In the 1840's the term came from the Whigs' 1840 portrayal of Harrison as a "cider-swilling, raccoon-skin-capped man of the people." https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4GDrXT_vnkC&pg=PT604 In the 1840's, the word "coon" as applied to people generally meant a rural white person, a sharpster, or as in the phrase "a pretty slick coon," both. Henry Clay was called "the Old Coon" by both Whigs and Democrats--as a way of praising his cleverness (and denying he was an aristocrat) by the former and criticizing his sharpness by the latter.

"To complicate matters, the eagerness of the Whig party to identity with rural white common people led it to adopt symbols like Davy Crockett's coonskin cap and, in the 'log cabin and hard cider' presidential campaign of 1840, to nail coonskins to supporters' cabin doors and to use live coons as signs of party loyalty. Thus Whigs also became 'coons', especially in the speech of Democrats, who cursed 'Whigs in 'coongress' and Whig `coonventions', Whig `coonism' and a lack of Whig 'coon-sistency'." The Whigs, to New York City Democrats, were a 'Federal Whig Coon Party' — a slur that, though sometimes seen in historical writing as racist, probably had nothing to do with the Whigs' slightly greater tolerance for antislavery. Instead, the accusation was that Whigs were sly political manipulators, posturing in coonskin as friends of the common man.

"Only gradually did coon emerge as a racial slur, with the first clear case of such usage coming in 1848. That it first found racist use mainly on the minstrel stage suggests that the site evolved from Zip Coon, and in the context of the many references to coon-hunting and eating coons in blackface songs. An alternative explanation is that coon derived from the corruption of barracoon, from the Spanish barracon, which came into increasing use to describe the 'enclosures in which slaves (were] temporarily enclosed after escape or during travel' in the years just before the Civil War." Whatever the derivation, all coons decidedly did not look alike in the 1850s..." when the term was still sometimes used for rural whites. https://books.google.com/books?id=PwyMmV1_0kMC&pg=PA98
 
Is that from what certain Democrats believed to be the (Northern) Whigs' cause celebre?

(i.e, the racist term for a black person)
Thank you for bringing up this important point. I think we're had a good discussion. Apparently, "The Old Coon" was one of several nicknames for Henry Clay, including being called that way by both political friends and opponents.

Interesting how "clever" has (at least!) two shades of meaning.
 
OH_Dayton_CoonDissector-1024x699.jpg

27. Coon Dissector (Dayton, OH), 1844

"A Democratic newspaper supporting James K. Polk. The symbol of the Democratic party at the time was a rooster. . . "

http://pastispresent.org/2016/fun-in-the-archive/the-campaign-newspaper-title-quiz-the-answers/

Looks more like an eagle or hawk to me!

==============

And notice the coon with the knife in it and the two pelts. To what extent is this "normal" campaigning, and to what extent is it deepening divisions that will lead to the Civil War?
 
Last edited:
OK, thanks for the options. What animal represents the Green Party? or which of the mentioned parties would these animals have ?:
* Lion
* Bear
* Cougar
* Rooster

The cougar would be best for a green party, representing the native wilderness that they presumably want to preserve. Bears are a little too comfortable with human activity to be a good green symbol. The other animals are not native.
 
i've always thought that an alligator would make a good political mascot--it's another distinctly American animal despite its similarities to crocodiles (and the fact that there are alligators in China, too, which--in a narrative--could lead to some interesting criticisms of symbolism)
 
Top