Posted on 08/09/2008 6:15:18 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Without a doubt, all politically alert Americans are aware of the Red State, Blue State color scheme that's used to describe the voting patterns of various constituancies in the U.S. In it, Red states are conservative Republican, Blue States are liberal Democrat. There are some marginal states, which have become known as Purple States. But, on Free Republic, I've noticed some Freepers complain about the colors that are applied. I personally never felt strongly about it, but others seem to, and they have a point.
The term became fixed into our conciousness on election night in 2000. The networks chose the color red for states that voted Republican and blue for those who voted Democrat. As we all remember, the nation as a whole was almost evenly divided in the Presidential election. At the same time, most individual states voted solidly one way or another, with only a few being close. It became noticed that there was a high degree of polarization, as if Americans were moving into areas so that they could live around like-minded people. And as a result, the terms Red State/Blue State became a central part of American political jargon.
It used to be that each news network used its own color scheme to differentiate between the parties in election night coverage. Each network had its own pollsters and conducted its own interviews with voters. But during the 1990's, they consolodated their services to save money, and all relied on the now discredited Voter News Service. This caused the networks to use the same color scheme simultaneously
Here is the source of the complaints I've noticed. Historically, the color red was equated with Communism. And in much of the world, that is still the case. The Marxist-leaning former Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, was nicknamed Red Ken. In earlier times, Americans who were suspected of Marxist sympathies found themselves labeled "Reds," and the term was not a compliment. So it is a historical paradox that in the United States, it is those of us who are opposed to Marxism who are Reds.
What's also noticeable is that for the most part, establishment conservatives seem to have accepted the label. There is an excellent conservative site called RedState. And there is a book advocating the election of more conservative Republicans by Hugh Hewitt called "Painting The Map Red: The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority."
An entire generation has been born since the Berlin Wall fell, and as a result, the label Red doesn't have the same impact as it used to. So perhaps, it's much ado about nothing. But others say we've allowed ourselves to be painted red by a devious, biased media and ought to fight to get the color scheme changed, reclaiming the Blue label as our own.
And if those who oppose the color labels think we should contest it, how can it be done? Can we change the vocabulary that the Washington Press Corps has foisted on us?
It should be inetersting to hear what a large number of Freepers have to say.
Living in Europe in 1980, and having to listen to the European’s complaints about Reagan, it was really great to see that sea of blue sweep over the US. It was one of the great days of my life.
There is no doubt in my mind that the networks finally settled on Red for the GOP to take away the pink stain on the Rats..and now the outright nomination of a marxist.
Take a look at it. He has all the Bush states in blue and the dimwit states in red!
They didn’t use red for the Dems. They used red for the party out of office, and blue for the incumbent party. The deviation from custom came in 2004 once everyone started nattering about ‘Red States’ and ‘Blue States’.
Communism is a spent force. The PRC and Vietnam are fascist rather than Communist now; in North Korea ‘Juche’ is a bizarre form of oriental despotism and emperor-worship dressed up with Stalinist-style police, concentration camps and bad uniforms; Russia may not be democratic, but they have a market economy and Christian religious education in their schools.
Red is a fine color (just ask any Nebraska Cornhusker fan). We liberated it from the Commies when we won the Cold War. Besides it alliterates with Republican.
The acceptance of red by conservatives makes it unlikely it will ever change. I imagine most people don’t even think about ir or care, they just accept it.
Interesting in the rest of the world colors have long been associated with parties but here just since 2000.
I’m not sure the MSM picked Red for Republican just to dissociate the historic color of leftism from the rats, since many people aren’t even aware red=commie. There have been marketing studies showing people like blue better (Pepsi did this). That’s perhaps a simpler reason.
I wish it were reversed though to fit international political color meanings, history, Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader parallels and those dave leip maps.
Better yet pick a really ugly color like greenish yellowish brownish grayish pet vomit for the rats. GOP gets all other colors.
IDEALLY the rats would get invisible.
The GOP should be Blue, and the Democrats Red (since they’re the leftist party). That’s the way it was traditionally, and that’s the way that Dave Leip’s presidential elections atlas has it. http://uselectionatlas.org/
This is a vanity thread a wrote a while back. Thought you’d be interested.
> This is a vanity thread a wrote a while back. Thought you’d be interested. <
An excellent post and a great discussion. Thanks!
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