Posted on 10/30/2015 12:55:06 PM PDT by TheJIMgram
TheJIM!gram© is a publication of Jim Jatras, the only announced prospect for the 2016 GOP Vice Presidential nod, addressing the daunting challenges facing our great country. Reposting and redistribution with attribution is permitted and encouraged.
October 29, 2015 No. 4
In this issue of TheJIM!gram© I propose:
"Let Them Be Red While We Take Back Reagan’s Blue"
There has been understandable chortling among Republicans that at the Democrats’ first debate they finally came clean on the “s-word.†Long considered almost taboo in American politics, the term socialism can now be considered mainstream in the party of (for now, anyway) Jefferson, Jackson, and FDR.
Snarkiness aside, it’s about time. Whether some of us conservatives like it or not, approximately half of our fellow citizens are attracted to ideas tilting to portside. In that sense, the Democrats’ “outing†themselves as socialists is simple truth-in-labeling and not an excuse-for-libeling.
After all, some of America’s best foreign friends are avowed socialists, for example the British Labour Party’s Tony Blair, a/k/a “Bush’s Poodle.†One could add the Socialist, Social Democratic, and Labour parties of our NATO allies in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, and so forth. Let’s not forget Canada’s answer to Bernie Sanders, Liberal Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau.
One thing common to all these parties is their signature color: some shade of red. Red is also the color of the European Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and of the worldwide Socialist International (SI), of which almost all these parties are members. (Red was also the color of the SI’s rival, the now-defunct Communist International.)
Historically, America’s Republicans and Democrats had no official color. Campaign colors varied from year-to-year and candidate-to-candidate (remember Jimmy Carter’s green?), though some combination of red-white-and-blue was standard. In 1980 and 1984, Ronald Reagan’s deep blue became close to a Republican trademark.
Color-coding of states on TV networks’ Election Night maps also varied by year, though generally Republicans were blue and Democrats red. “‘It's beginning to look like a suburban swimming pool,’ the television anchor David Brinkley noted on election night 1980, as hundreds of Republican-blue light bulbs illuminated NBC's studio map, signaling a landslide victory for Ronald Reagan over the Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Other staffers, Time magazine wrote, called it ‘Lake Reagan.’â€
The GOP-blue vs. Democrat-red scheme not only accorded with the profiles of conservative and socialist parties internationally, it reflected the subliminal and emotional impact colors have on the human psyche:
“That is, the cooler color blue more closely represented the rational thinker and cold-hearted and the hotter red more closely represented the passionate and hot-blooded. This would translate into blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. Put another way, red was also the color most associated with socialism and the party of the Democrats was clearly the more socialistic of the two major parties.†[Clark Bensen, “RED STATE BLUES: Did I Miss That Memo?â€, POLIDATA, 5/27/04]
The current counterintuitive scheme arose only during the prolonged Bush-Gore standoff in 2000 as (argued implausibly by numerous sources, most of them liberal-leaning) the supposed “need for consistency across media outlets became paramount.†And since the Democrats just happened to be blue in some outlets that year (so the story goes), the current pattern was established – and stuck with the monikers “red states†and “blue states†attributed first to NBC’s Tim Russert.
Many conservatives, including this writer, suspect but can’t prove that the real reason was the MSM’s desire to scrub socialistic red from the Democrats and strip the GOP of Reagan’s color. [NOTE: If you have any proof of how the red/blue switcheroo actually happened, tweet me!] Republicans have reinforced our reputation as the Stupid Party by meekly allowing the Evil Party to get away with it.
Enough is enough! In 2014 the Republican National Committee declared blue to be the party’s color. The same year activists in the California Republican Party called for the party to return to its chromatic roots: “‘Should the Republican Party choose its own principles and symbols, or should we let the national media do that for us?’ asked Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R- Richvale, in an email to delegates. ‘Well, the answer should be obvious.’â€
Yes, it should be obvious but evidently it isn’t – even to Republicans. Amazingly, contrary to its own 2014 declaration the RNC itself displays red logos on its official website, on its Twitter account, and on its Facebook page!
Now that the Democrats are openly a red socialist party, it’s time Republicans got serious about reclaiming our color. RNC, please change the logo to blue and display it consistently on party sites. GOP candidates, please ensure that blue predominates on your campaign materials. Republican voters – refuse to accept paraphernalia in red. Ask for blue instead: a deep, rich Reagan blue, not the insipid shade favored by the Democrats.
And everybody, please stop enabling of the Democrats’ appropriation of the GOP’s cool, trustworthy, responsible, if slightly boring true blue by parroting the “red state†“blue state†dichotomy – and insist on the same when speaking with media. (One admirable example: WorldNetDaily’s Joseph Farah rejection of the “media-manipulated color narrative.â€)
As Congressman LaMalfa (see his principled blue campaign site!) observed, we can’t let someone else choose the GOP’s symbols. Symbols matter. They tell the world who we are – and who our opponents are.
It’s time to set the visual record straight.
MY PLEDGE: Starting now, and especially if I am selected for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination and am privileged to assume that august post in January 2017, I pledge to maintain consistently the GOP’s historic blue identification in all relevant contexts and insist on referring to the Democrats as the red socialist party they now acknowledge themselves to be.
This TheJIM!gram© is being tweeted to each of the Republican Presidential candidates and to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. Please tweet them your support for this proposal!
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If you liked this TheJIM!gram©, please endorse me for Vice President by tweeting with the hashtag #JimJatrasVeep. I am more than pleased to answer non-frivolous media questions about issues of public interest. Tweet me at @JimJatras. Contributions to support my issue education and public information activities can be made at www.repealfatca.com, and purchases of my unique phonetic conversion font www.EurAlfabet.com are appreciated. If you didn’t like this TheJIM!gram©, then just mind your own business.
I am pro-life, pro-gun, pro-traditional marriage, pro-immigration control, anti-war, pro-privacy, pro-tax reform, anti-phony ‘free trade’ deals. We need to feel like Americans again!
Most Republicans are also Socialists now ,they give Obama everything he wants
I’m totally down with it! I have been saying it myself for years. The media colored us red, and themselves blue. Tell them to screw themselves.
Me, too. For years.
Sorry, but the current designated colors are now indelibly fixed in the American public’s mind. It ain’t gonna change.
On the bright side, only we conservatives and patriots can honestly wear the red, white, and blue, or display Old Glory. Those are ours, and the left knows it.
We need to make the party's reflect the colors that correspond to their dominant ideologies. Communist and Nazi Red are the best colors for the Democrats.
This has bothered me for the longest time. I have a very clear recollection of election night coverage during the 70’s and 80’s and uniformly the Republican states were blue and the Democrat states red. I always assumed this to be more of an allusion to the use of the term red for communism, which seemed more closely aligned with Democrat politics. Blue represented a more calm, analytical approach to policy, and was seen as patriotic and traditional, and more closely described Republican politics.
In my opinion the red-blue switcheroo is simply another part of the liberal propaganda smear campaign to depict anything conservative or republican as extreme, radical and out of the mainstream of American tradition. This campaign, with hearty collaboration by the news/entertainment media, has been amazingly effective.
I know very conservative people who proudly declare themselves to be “red state” republicans and radical or far right conservatives, when their positions just represent what is historically normal and mainstream. It is very frustrating, particularly when conservatives begin to concede the arena of political terminology to the liberals, and accept the labels placed on them by their adversaries.
It is also a manifestation of a phenomenon I have observed for a couple of decades: that is the diversion tactic employed by the left in which they make ad hominem attacks and attach labels like “extreme” or “radical” or “outrageous” to describe conservatives to divert attention from their own radical and extreme agenda.
The first step in reversing this distortion of who Republicans or conservatives are would be to withdraw any cooperation with the liberal nomenclature. The challenges to the “moderators” of the recent CNBC debate is a good example. We need to see more of it.
Dear all, I apologies for the crummy formatting! This is my first post on Free Republic but it won’t be my last! I think I made the mistake of not taking out the hyperlinks, will correct in the future. You can see the original with sources — including visuals == at www.repealfatca.com, subpage TheJIM!gram. Note other commentaries on 1. “It’s the Cloture, Stupid!” (How to defund Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, amnesty via Obama’s pen,etc.); 2. The disappearance of the founding American ethnos from our super-legislature (a/k/a the Supreme Court); and 3. BENGHAZI: What Neither Hillary not the GOP Want to Talk About.
DITTO.
Red is the color of energy, bravery etc. Blue is wimpy.
It was bs when the media changed the colors on the maps in the first place. Iirc, when questioned, they through out a bs excuse about the party in power was one color, opposition the other. But they never switched them back, of course.
We knew it right away for the psy-ops it was. Someone wanted to remove the communist associated color from dems. And the pubbies rolled ovef for it. Should have thrown a giant shit fit, but nooooooooo....
Bs. Red is the official communist color. Visuals are everything.
“Better dead than red” is still my motto. Red China. Russian reds. Red hammer and sickle.
Pubbies need to reclaim blue. Or pick green and make their heads explode.
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