Red state / blue state?

[phil19034]

Has anyone else ever wondered why the “red” and “blue” states were assigned those colors by the news media?

The initial explanation was that it made them easier to distinguish, and this was done for many years in television reporting, with red and blue alternating between the two major parties from year to year. Also, they were easily distinguished on a black and white TV set (which hardly anyone has these days).

I have wondered whether the permanent “red for conservative” and “blue for liberal” color scheme we see today has some kind of deeper agenda behind it.

Think of the colors and what they are commonly associated with:

Red — “hot”, fiery, lurid, satanic, communistic, evil — the color you would use if you wanted to demonize something or someone

Blue — “cool”, tranquil, peaceful, pleasant to behold, benign (and, I would add, the color of Our Lady) — the color you would use if you wanted to put someone or something in a positive light

Now think — red is the color assigned by the media to Republicans, conservatives, traditional values, whereas blue is the color assigned to Democrats, liberals, and “progressive” values.

An agenda here?

It came from NBC. NBC used to flip the colors every election… there wasn’t a standard color.

In the 2000 election, they just happened to be using Red for Republican and Blue for Democrat, when someone, looking at the map coined red states / blue states spontaneously.

Because of the recount, the electoral map was present in our minds for a few weeks and then the “blue state” / “red state” phrasing stuck.

The parties eventually adopted the colors as their official colors too.

Before 2000, the official colors of both parties was simply Red, White & blue. Both the donkey and elephant used to be in red, white & blue (with blue the primary color for both).

Now, the elephant is just in red & white and the Democrats are now using a blue D (instead of the Donkey - though the media still uses the donkey).

The Republican website is now primarily red with some blue accents, the Democratic Party’s website is primarily blue with a few red buttons.

So it was a fluke, that most likely would have never stuck had it not been for the recount in 2000.

 

[jrgmercado]

Because “liberals” are Catholic also.

 

[phil19034]

here is an NRP article explaining the origin of the colors

https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363762677/the-color-of-politics-how-did-red-and-blue-states-come-to-be

the Washington Post had assigned Blue to Bush and Red to Gore back in 2000.


So again, it didn’t become coined untils someone said, “look at all those ‘Red States’” on NBC News.

BTW - I do NOT think the colors are an agenda because MOST people have no idea what moods are associated with colors. That’s just some junk that social scientists do

 

[Salibi]

So “liberal” Catholics hatched a conspiracy to utilize the color blue in order to lure conservatives to their side?

There’s no need to get riled up by my use of the world liberal, I’m calling them what the OP called them.

 

[phil19034]

ZMystiCat:

Ultimately, if you’re starting to read into things this negatively, it might be a good time to take a break from politics and anything else contributing to this paranoia.

I don’t think it’s paranoid at all. Many, many people believe that the establishment media have a liberal bias. NPR is probably the closest thing we have to a “neutral” outlet.

At the very least, it could be a case of “let’s not make the liberals look bad”, i.e., red has a socialist/communist overtone to it, so let’s avoid this, blue looks nicer. There are a lot of subliminal influences in media and advertising.

Again, if that was true, The Washington Post would have been using Red for Republicans back in 2000, but they didn’t. They used Red for the Democrats.

It honestly wasn’t until someone said “look at all those Red States” that phrase was coined. And it wouldn’t have stuck if it wasn’t for the fact that the

Also
“For years, both parties would do red and blue maps, but they always made the other guys red,” said Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News. “During the Cold War, who wanted to be red?”

Another article: When Republicans Were Blue and Democrats Were Red | History | Smithsonian Magazine

 

[HomeschoolDad]

“For years, both parties would do red and blue maps, but they always made the other guys red,” said Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News. “During the Cold War, who wanted to be red?”

This gives just a smidgen of credibility to my original thesis, but you would have to be a certain age (which I am). In my Catholic high school, which ran on the thinnest of financial shoestrings, the Catholic-themed civics texts were from the early 1960s and boldly referred to Communists as “the Reds”. And let’s not forget the Redlegs baseball team in 1950s Cincinnati (very conservative and very, very Catholic).

 

[phil19034]

phil19034:

“For years, both parties would do red and blue maps, but they always made the other guys red,” said Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News. “During the Cold War, who wanted to be red?”

This gives just a smidgen of credibility to my original thesis, but you would have to be a certain age (which I am). In my Catholic high school, which ran on the thinnest of financial shoestrings, the Catholic-themed civics texts were from the early 1960s and boldly referred to Communists as “the Reds”. And let’s not forget the Redlegs baseball team in 1950s Cincinnati (very conservative and very, very Catholic).

Yeah, but remember what he’s saying:

The incumbent party was in blue back in 2000 while the challenging party was in red.

The Dems were the incumbents, hence blue, the Republicans were the challengers in red.

And that was just NBCs. The Washington Post has it flipped in 2000. They had Dems in red.

The recount wound up assigning the colors to the parties instead of to incumbent/ challenger.

Some people would like to say it was Obama 2004 speech at the DNC convention, however, the Red State / Blue State was already ingrained in everyone’s head before the recount was over.

Had the recount never happened, NBC still might be doing Blue for incumbent, Red for challenger.

 

[nightshade]

I used to be hyper-political and very unhappy. Like any addiction, I am much happier now.

This. I wish everyone still plugged into Facebook would take this to heart. I used to be hyper political and I was so so so bitter and unhappy. I wish people would realize that most of politics is just like WWE professional wrestling. Heels and faces, it’s all scripted and it’s scripted to rile us up. That’s why I am so sick of republicans AND democrats. Heels and faces.

 

[Peeps]

Silly me.

I thought “Red” starts with “R” which is also what “Republican” starts with. And by default, blue goes to the Democrats.

I hope they don’t change it. I like my way of remembering which is which.

If by some incredible miracle, an Independent candidate should happen to win a state, what color would that state be?

I assume if a “Green Party” candidate won a state (by an even greater miracle than if an Independent won!), the state would be colored Green?! It would be kind of confusing if the Green Party states were assigned any other color.

 

[EricF]

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[phil19034]

If by some incredible miracle, an Independent candidate should happen to win a state, what color would that state be?

I assume if a “Green Party” candidate won a state (by an even greater miracle than if an Independent won!), the state would be colored Green?! It would be kind of confusing if the Green Party states were assigned any other color.

While I guess the Green Party would get green, yellow is the next logical color and has been used plenty of times before

Here are maps of historic elections

Historical U.S. Presidential Elections 1789-2020 - 270toWin

View a map, results and history from each of the 59 prior U.S. presidential elections.

www.270towin.com

 

[Pitcairn17]

ZMystiCat:

Ultimately, if you’re starting to read into things this negatively, it might be a good time to take a break from politics and anything else contributing to this paranoia.

I don’t think it’s paranoid at all. Many, many people believe that the establishment media have a liberal bias. NPR is probably the closest thing we have to a “neutral” outlet.

At the very least, it could be a case of “let’s not make the liberals look bad”, i.e., red has a socialist/communist overtone to it, so let’s avoid this, blue looks nicer. There are a lot of subliminal influences in media and advertising.

I’m sorry, but NPR as “neutral?” Bwahahaha! Not in my listening experience.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Many, many people believe that the establishment media have a liberal bias. NPR is probably the closest thing we have to a “neutral” outlet.

At the very least, it could be a case of “let’s not make the liberals look bad ”, i.e., red has a socialist/communist overtone to it, so let’s avoid this, blue looks nicer. There are a lot of subliminal influences in media and advertising.

The news coverage, taken all by itself, is for the most part pretty neutral. They do pay more attention to liberal causes, but I do not think that is the same thing as true bias. They are a far cry from CNN, which has become an anti-Trump soapbox the past few years. The Washington Post, which I read daily online, is so hostile to Trump that it is actually obscene. NPR and PBS are very even-handed by comparison.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I wonder more about the animals assigned to each political party.

 

[7_Sorrows]

NPR and PBS do have their bias though.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

The colors of the country are red white and blue. You cant have the “white states” because of a racial overtone which leaves you with red and blue. The term blue dog democrats was formed around 1995 in relation to southern democrats being choked blue by the more liberal wings of the party. And while it would seem more appropriate to term the democratic socialist leaning party red… That would be a huge bias. So I like the red and the blue. As far as the country goes and as a red stater, I’m proud. If the body of america is powered by the heart I would rather be red and contributing to the growth and nourishment of the country than blue being the used and trashed part… Veins and arteries… So I like it just the way it is.

 

[Dovekin]

Nancy Reagan preferred red.

 

[Angannas]

In the UK our conservative party (in terms of policies actually probably slightly to the left of the US democrats) are blue and the Labour party (much further to the left than the US democrats) are red, while the Liberal Democrats, somewhere in between, considered centrist by British standards but would be definitely to the left by US standards are yellow. Most countries would be similar, for some reason the US seem to have flipped the colours.

 

[angel12]

I wonder more about the animals assigned to each political party.

Those are from 19th-century political cartoons. Google “Thomas Nast.”

 

[Joe_5859]

I don’t think there is any grand conspiracy here, but I do understand the OP’s original question. Colors can have subconscious psychological effects. It’s why most of the larger fast food chains use red and yellow color schemes (those colors supposedly make you hungry).

I always wondered how the Democrats ended up with calm, soothing blue, while the Republicans ended up with anxious, agitated red. It seems like an accident of history more than anything intentional, though. I am kind of glad they just picked a set of colors and stuck with it. It would be utterly confusing to me if the colors kept switching every election.