Explain the Red State / Blue State Dichotomy, please?

Question

For some reason, I referred to Republican states as BLUE today! Dumb. Red is one of my favorite colors and Dems are occasionally accused of having socialist ("red") leanings . . . so why are we blue? Because we're sad that we lost the recount?

Answer 1

It's just that that's the way all the networks labeled their election maps in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Now some people make a big thing of it. (I even said I'm "blue state politics and red state culture" a few days back.) Many blogs, lists, and forums use it in their titles ("Red State Rants", "Blue Exile", "The Purple Zone", etc.) It's a neat shorthand, and an easy way to put stereotypes together.

Answer 2

One of the networks used those colors to represent the states won by each candidate on Election Night a few Presidential elections ago (it might have been 2000, but I'm not sure) and the labels have stuck. Of course, not every red state is deeply conservative, nor is every blue state hard-core liberal.

Answer 3

Red, White and Blue being the three colors of the flag.

One explanation I heard is that blue references the Union (blue-coats) during the Civil war, which war the North (now primarily Democratic), while red references the color of the Confederacy, since the south is now mainly Republican.

And also because you can't effectively color a map white to indicate affiliation, and Green was taken, so red and blue got used.

Answer 4

Yes. And you'll lose the recounts in 2006 too.

Answer 5

Because conservatives are more like communists with respect to censorship.

Answer 6

think of it as a chart showing the heat of brain function