[Clintonfatigued]

Freep away!

[ZOOKER]

Mess with everybody's minds.

From now on, conservative states are white, all others black...

[niteowl77]

Nothing the MSM does is by accident, nor is it (nowadays) benign.

[TheZMan]

In my opinion yes, much ado about nothing. Thank you for enlightening me as to the colors origins however. I’d often wondered about that.

[1rudeboy]

I think the whole red State/blue State thing took off when USA Today published that election map on the back of section one.

I remember thinking that the colors were assigned the wrong way around, and that it was specifically the intention to do so.

Dems? Red? No-brainer.

[fieldmarshaldj]

To hell with these media newsspeak colors. To quote a young Democrat I spoke to not so long ago, "I want my red back !" They can gladly have it. Anybody that calls me a "Red Stater" (living in a GOP state) or "Red/Red Republican" to my face is gonna get a fat lip. Proud BLUE Conservative Republican here. :-)

Reagan's Blue GOP America, 1984

[garjog]

“Historically, the color red was equated with Communism.”

We know that the reason they used red for Dems is that they are closer to the communists and to label them red would be too close to home.

[sionnsar]

I think of "blue" as associated with "bluebloods" -- our arrogant self-appointed (politically and psychologically inbred) elites, whereas I am a red-blooded American and anything BUT a "Red."

My entry anyway...

[Jedidah]

This is silly.

[MARTIAL MONK]

I think that it was a conscious put down of all of us who have been defenders of the old White and Blue.

[PghBaldy]

The original tradition was to have Red as the Challenger/Party, and Blue as the Incumbent/Party.

[Ronin]

It irked me a bit when it was new, but now I don’t really care. Too late to change it anyhow because it’s a part of the political lexicon now.

Other more important things to spend time thinking about.

[Sudetenland]

I have been angry at this for some time.

During the Reagan landslide, some newscasters joked about "Lake Reagan" while viewing the electoral map, mostly colored blue...for Republican.

Historically, blue was used for allies and red for enemies on military maps. I believe that the choice was purposeful to camouflage the fact that most Democrats are pro-socialism and were sympathetic to Soviet aims. Hence the term "pinkos."

Since our gutless Republican Party has acquiesced to the color change, I doubt anything can or will be done about it, but some of us know the truth and will not forget.

[NYIslander]

I don’t think it’s intentional...but it still irks me. Leftist parties should be red. Until Tony Blair took over, the logo of the British Labour Party was simply a red flag.

[Cicero]

No question about it. The pathological liars in the TV networks deliberately reversed the traditional color scheme, and presumably they did so because they thought it would benefit the Democrats.

Red has long been the color of Communists and other revolutionaries. Blue has long been the color of conservatives. Red is emotionally hot and angry, blue is soothing and loyal.

I would have changed it back then. Can it still be done now? I don’t know. Certainly it SHOULD be done. As George Orwell was among the first to observe, these leftists achieve their propaganda victories in part by continually monkeying with the language. And color symbolism is a kind of language.

I am constantly aware of that kind of trickery. It’s really too bad that conservatives let themselves be conned into accepting this reversal.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

I grew up with US News and World Report and they always colored Democrats Red like the Red Army that implemented the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia or the Red Chinese.

[neverdem]

It’s a mind game thanks to the left. Let’s give the left their traditional color, red. The left is fond of tyranny, like they were during the Cold War. They hope we’ll forget. Look up pinko.

[DesertDreamer]

Perhaps it’s time for the Right to use the Left’s penchant for redefinition against them.

Red obviously refers to the blood that runs in the veins of conservatives, which we are willing to spill in defense of the Constitution and the Republic.

Blue, in relation to the Left, is a reference to blue blood, elitism and the effete false intellectuals who love themselves more than their fellow man.

Or, we can just ask the MSM to do our bidding and reverse the colors. ;^)

[upchuck]

Historically, the color red was equated with Communism.

And Netflix :)

Thanks for the ping.

[southernnorthcarolina]

There are several -- and conflicting -- stories on how the GOP red and Dem blue color schemes came to be.

For sure, prior to 1980 it was blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. If my memory serves, in 1980 the broadcast networks used different colors from each other, so that if you were changing between ABC, CBS, and NBC, you might get confused. I seem to recall that one election night anchor referred to Reagan's dominance of the map as "Lake Reagan," while an anchor on another network joked that "the country's going red."

Some of the media adopted, for a while, one color for the party in power (with respect to the Presidency), and the other color for the party out of power. Other media kept their colors for each party the same from election to election, regardless of which party was in power. But by (I think) 1988, for whatever reason, there was general agreement that the GOP would be red, and the Dems blue (Dave Leip's excellent election site remains an exception).

Why? Who knows? Some have speculated that the Dems complained about being associated with socialism/communism -- maybe the truth hurts. Others have said that red was Nancy Reagan's favorite color, and that "Reagan Red" can be traced to her; that seems highly unlikely.

Red for the GOP doesn't bother me. It's a "better" color in terms of intensity -- it jumps out at you on a map, whether on TV or on paper. The Dems, I'm guessing, would like it back. I say embrace the red. Lay claim to it.