Rattlesnake as US national emblem

So what if instead of the bald eagle the American rattlesnake becomes America's national animal?

How do we make this happen? How would that affect other US symbolism?

Thoughts?
 
The snake tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, I would guess that America is too religious to have such a symbol of evil as the National symbol; 'don't tread on me' notwithstanding.
 
Possibly have the first revolution fail, sending the Gadsen Flag and the rattlesnake underground as the symbol of the independence movement and when a second revolution succeeds you don't have a group of founding fathers obsessed with all the classical Rome nostalgia?

In reality the rattlesnake was close to being the symbol; it still is part of the emblem for the war department/army something along those lines but the national symbol was fought between the Eagle/turkey/dove so an event that drives all birds off the table needs to happen.
 
While the Gadsden Flad was used...the rattlesnake was used a lot by British propaganda, not particularly flatteringly...

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If you can't read the text on the right:

Behold the Dutch and Spanish Curs
Perfidious Gallus in his Spurs,
And Rattlesnake with head upright,
The British Lion join to fight.
He scorns the Bark, the Hiss, the Crow...
That he's a Lion, soon they'll know.


Given that this and a lot of other propaganda uses the rattlesnake and depicts it as this evil-looking thing...would the Americans fancy adopting it after Independence?
 
While the Gadsden Flad was used...the rattlesnake was used a lot by British propaganda, not particularly flatteringly...

large.jpg

That snake seems to represent America. I really don't see the problem. Maybe it was even the internationally adopted symbol before the Bald Eagle was adopted? I mean, it looks and sounds no more evil than that cute Dutch pug. It's just an enemy of Britain, and so villified.
 
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This article has some interesting information on the subject. It turns out one of Benjamin Franklin's ideas for the emblem was in fact the rattlesnake:
Before and after his time on the first Great Seal committee, Franklin had a number of ideas for the emblem of the United States. In an anonymous letter to the Pennsylvania Journal in 1775, Franklin pondered the virtues of using the rattlesnake as the coat of arms of America. His assessment was perhaps overthought—Franklin recognized both that a rattlesnake “never begins an attack, nor, once engaged, ever surrenders” and that rattlesnakes huddle together in winter for warmth, just like Americans do. (I guess?) Though it didn’t make it onto the Great Seal, Franklin’s rattlesnake comparison and the related “Don’t Tread on Me” slogan and other symbols have been in the limelight in recent years.
Perhaps he could just stick with this idea?
 
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