This is especially impressive given the fact that in regards to the standards of the time it was originally framed (1875 according to wikipedia), it also followed the "ideological switch" between democrats and republicans that occurred during the 20th century.
Similarly, in sports, the Dallas Cowboys are called "America's team"... How's that possible?
Grand, Grand Old Party
in sports, the Dallas Cowboys are called "America's team"... How's that possible?
2 reasons: 1. sportswriters and announcers have power. A nice bit of framing by a Dallas PR guy (helped by national support for Dallas due to some stuff including being a constantly good team) got picked up by a CBS announcer and the name stuck. This transitions to 2: names stick.
Why did Thomas [Nast] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/famous-cartoonist-made-donkey-and-elephant-the-symbols-of-political-parties/2012/01/20/gIQAm5aWVQ_story.html) get to define the animal of each political party? Because the things he created became recognized symbols and it's really hard to change symbols.
so that's really a long way of saying i'm pretty sure there isn't an answer: cultural associations are just sticky.