Some voters think the Democratic Party should trade the donkey for the sloth or a “deer in the headlights,” according to the revelations of a consultant who’s conducted more than 200 focus groups.
Democratic researcher Anat Shenker-Osorio told the New York Times that voters she’s spoken with tell her that Democrats would be the meekest and slowest members of the animal kingdom.
Shenker-Osorio will typically ask the swing voters in some 250 focus groups to compare the two political parties to animals in hopes of getting people to divulge their true feelings.
The difference between the two sides is stark as the Democratic Party continues to lose support among key demographics and has poor approval scores.
Dems are usually labeled as tortoises, slugs or sloths by voters, Shenker-Osorio told the Times.
One Democratic woman, who lives in Georgia, even said earlier this year she sees the party as “a deer in the headlight.”
“You stand there and you see the car coming, but you’re going to stand there and get hit with it anyway,” Shenker-Osorio recalled the woman saying.
Meanwhile, Republicans are typically seen as lions, tigers and sharks by voters because those animals are “apex predators,” the researcher told the Times.
The Democrats’ current mascot, the donkey, first emerged in the late 1820s when Andrew Jackson was running for president.
Shenker-Osorio told the newspaper Democratic voters want lawmakers ready to take action instead of “navel-gazing” following the 2024 election of President Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Voters are hungry for people to actually stand up for them — or get caught trying,” she said.
“The party is doing a lot of navel-gazing and not enough full-belly acting.”