When did we become "Red?"

[SteelEye]

As someone who grew up watching the McCarthy hearings I've always associated "Red" with commies and the like. This sentiment even carried over to things like cables. The red cable was always the left cable.

Are they going to change the movie "Reds" to "Blues?"

Nowadays, I'm red and all the commies are blue. My audio/tv cables are switched too. Red is now right, the other being left (black, white or yellow).

I sort of resent being referred to as red, not that I care about being blue either. All commies will always be RED to me.

Does anyone else care?

 

[seed]

Does anyone else care?

No...And no offense, but are you kidding?

 

[Standing Wolf]

I believe the original red versus blue map was issued by U.S.A. Today shortly after the 2000 election. Some self-inflicted genius was afraid to associate red with the leftist extremists, and so applied the color to the states with enough sense not to vote for the leftist extremists.

If I'd concocted the map, I'd have used green and orange or blue and yellow, and skipped all the connotations.

 

[Flyboy]

Actually, my understanding is that they used to alternate the colors; after the 2000 election, though, the meme "red states" was introduced to mean "Republican-leaning states," and it seems to have stuck.

Anybody have election maps from 1988, 1992, 1996?

 

[jefnvk]

Now, what I really want to know, who is white?

 

[Cortland]

I agree that we were stuck with red because the mainstream media didn't want the comparison between liberals and commies. USA Today can call Virginia whatever color it wants, but to me it'll always be GRAY

 

[ajkurp]

White is bad.

White male is even worse...

 

[Majic]

Long before the communist the term red was associated with the American Native.

 

[jefnvk]

White male is even worse...

Only if you are one of those reverse racists

 

[countertop]

No...And no offense, but are you kidding?

No, I don't think he is.

I had the pleasure of telling a very senior political advisor at the White House that their only long lasting mistake (political, everything else really has been beautiful to watch unfold) so far has been to allow USA Today to switch the meaning of Being a Red. After growing up during the cold war, I and milions of other American's associated the color with being a commie and now the liberals (re; progressives) have managed to remove that card from our deck. We can't call them pinkos or reds or commies any more.

He agreed.

But didn't really know what to do about it now.

 

[TimH]

I think SteelEye has been smokin' the weed

 

[mountainclmbr]

I believe it is correct that USA Today picked the colors on the map. I understand that it was done to match the maps they saw the military use where the USA troops are shown in Blue and the enemy is shown in Red. Coming from USA Today I am sure that is exactly the way they see it.

 

[Burt Blade]

We are all Red White and Blue.

Minor disagreements over politics should not change that. But family squabbles are sometimes far nastier than one might expect.

 

[AZRickD]

Nope, you're all wrong.

I have the 1996 post-election issue of Time Magazine with Demo states in Red and GOP states in Blue.

This was changed in 2000... my guess, due to the left-leaning journalists not wishing to associate Red=communist with Democrat candidates.

Rick

 

[stevelyn]

Who cares? It's only a color to give contrast to a graph.

 

[No_Brakes23]

Perhaps it is merely alliterative, just like audio cables.

R = R.

Red for Right audio channel, Red for Republican.

Makes sense to me, but then again, I haven't been able to find my tinfoil hat for a while.

 

[davec]

 

[71Commander]

I don't like being associated with red (Communist), but I don't really care about blue either(Yankee). So given the choice of the two colors...... pass the suntan lotion.

 

[entropy]

Merely another attempt by the Socialists to co-opt all that is good in America, while villifying it at the same time. Classic Disinformation stategy, stright out of the KGB's book of dirty tricks. Of course, the reverse also works. Phoenix program, anyone?

 

[Sindawe]

I have no problem being associated with the color red. As an Aries, red is my cardinal color. It is the color of power, fire, sex and blood. It is also my favorite for cars, motorcycles, clothing and female companions.

 

[71Commander]

I have no problem being associated with the color red. As an Aries, red is my cardinal color. It is the color of power, fire, sex and blood. It is also my favorite for cars, motorcycles, clothing and female companions.

It's also the number one color of car that gets speeding tickets.

 

[antarti]

Cortland +P+

but to me it'll always be GRAY

I used to hear the saying "You gotta go North to go South in Florida". Or was it "You gotta go South to go North in Florida".

Oh well... color it Grey, forever.

 

[No_Brakes23]

It's also the number one color of car that gets speeding tickets.

That depends entirely upon which officer you talk to.

I have heard more than one officer say that they pick a color for that day. "Only yellow cars today"

I have also heard one officer explain that whites, grays, pale blues, beiges etc that blend in, tend to catch the eye and have an optical illusion of moving faster due to blending in.

Whatever. I get the color I like, and call it a day. Fight the ticket and either win or take my lumps.

 

[Desertdog]

Ahhhh semanics.

The Republican states are Red.

And the Communist (Reds) are proclaimed to be Conservative by main stream media.

And since the Republicans call themselves conservative, and their states are the Red states, they must be what?

Do I detect a semantics play on words here?