Political colour
16/11/14 17:38![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
nairiporter.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
talkpoliticsGuys, I have an inquiry. Mostly to our American friends here. I have done some research on the issue, but I am still not sure that I have a conclusive explanation of the question why the Democratic party is symbolised by the blue colour and the Republican party by the red colour. I mean, we have been seeing this distinction virtually on every political analysis where visual means are used: graphs, charts, cartoons, you name it.
As much as I could gather, it must have started fairly recently. Back in the 70s when Carter was running against Ford, the original colour scheme was still based on UK's political system, where red was the colour of the liberal party and blue of the conservative party. But then things changed. Sometime in the 2000, the New York Times and USA Today used a reversed version of these colours for their election maps (that was one very long and tedious election, which left a deep mark in American society).
I guess my question is why. What caused that shift, and how come it was so quickly and easily adopted by the rest of the public? Is that just some fad which took traction and stayed? Or was it just because Americans like doing things the exact opposite way to the rest of the world, to distinguish themselves? ;-)
A quick overview of the issue of political colours around the world reveals a vast diversity, and yet there is a noticeable tendency of red representing leftist/progressive/socialist-leaning ideologies and blue representing rightist/conservative/democratic-leaning ones. But that, of course, is The Rest of The World, a.k.a. Other Countries That Don't Matter. My inquiry here is strictly about the US. So what's your take on the matter?
As much as I could gather, it must have started fairly recently. Back in the 70s when Carter was running against Ford, the original colour scheme was still based on UK's political system, where red was the colour of the liberal party and blue of the conservative party. But then things changed. Sometime in the 2000, the New York Times and USA Today used a reversed version of these colours for their election maps (that was one very long and tedious election, which left a deep mark in American society).
I guess my question is why. What caused that shift, and how come it was so quickly and easily adopted by the rest of the public? Is that just some fad which took traction and stayed? Or was it just because Americans like doing things the exact opposite way to the rest of the world, to distinguish themselves? ;-)
A quick overview of the issue of political colours around the world reveals a vast diversity, and yet there is a noticeable tendency of red representing leftist/progressive/socialist-leaning ideologies and blue representing rightist/conservative/democratic-leaning ones. But that, of course, is The Rest of The World, a.k.a. Other Countries That Don't Matter. My inquiry here is strictly about the US. So what's your take on the matter?
