Kick Out Depression Democratic

Illustration of a grey elephant being kicked in the hind quarters by a donkey with black text above and below on a light yellow background. 

This button was promoting the Democratic Party during the 1932 presidential campaign which took place during the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover was repeatedly blamed for the Depression and the worsening economy. The Democrats and presidential candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, attacked the economic policies of Republican President Hoover with slogans like ‘Kick out Depression with a Democratic Vote’ and ‘Sweeping Out Depression’. The Republican Party responded with a similar button of an elephant kicking a donkey which read ‘Bring Back Prosperity with a Republican Vote’. Roosevelt’s main strategy, while traveling around the country campaigning, was to focus on Hoover's inadequacies while promising better days ahead. Roosevelt won the election by a landslide. He won 57% of the popular vote and forty-two of the forty-eight states.

This lithographic button was created by George Haumann, owner of Character Display Co in Chicago, Illinois. His company made mechanical and animated store displays and two known mechanical pinback buttons (mentioned above). These were manufactured by Green Duck Chicago and then were hand assembled by George Haumann​. The third image above shows an original store display.

See more innovative and unique buttons in action on the Busy Beaver blog.