Switching Political Party Colors

by Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Manipulating voters, the vote, and where the votes get placed is as old as humanity.  Language can be used (word magic), or other psychological games.  Sometimes it is as subtle as which color is used to represent a party.

Remember the old term "true blue republican?"  Okay, maybe you youngsters don't, but an old guy like me does.  Here's a map regarding President Ronald Reagan's near-unanimous reelection via the Electoral College back in 1984 (which was, by the way, the first election I voted in as an adult):

How about Ford's loss in 1976...

The color blue being associated with the Republican Party goes way back...

During the 1990s it seemed the color thing had been broken, twisted, and knocked around.  Suddenly, there was no uniformity in the maps on television or in newspapers or magazines to illustrate presidential elections. Sure, everyone embraced red and blue, but which color represented which party varied.

Some might suggest we were simply following Great Britain.  Indeed, our flag is a mixture of the British flag using the same colors, and our heritage is steeped in English colonization and history. So, why not follow the motherland?  Over the pond it's blue for conservatives, because that’s what the parliamentary system in London is, and red is used for the "more liberal party" (their description, not mine; personally I believe the word liberal was hijacked by the progressives from the constitutionalists a little over a hundred years ago, and they've refused to return it).

There's also the fact that red has always been more associated with socialism and the party of the Democrats seems to be clearly more socialistic of the two major parties.

I am figuring the original color scheme came from the War Between the States, where the predominantly Republican North was ‘Blue’, and the stand out color of the various confederate flags (which was dominated by the Democratic Party) was red.

Going all the way back to the beginning, the Jeffersonian Republicans were Blue, White and Red, and the Hamiltonian "big government" Federalist Party was black and white.

Two days after voters went to the polls in 2000 the New York Times joined USA Today by publishing color-coded, county-by-county maps detailing the election results between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Both papers used red for the Republican Bush, blue for the Democrat Gore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_71st_State_Assembly_district

“I just decided red begins with ‘r,’ Republican begins with ‘r.’ It was a more natural association,” said Archie Tse, senior graphics editor for the Times. “There wasn’t much discussion about it.”

Paul Overberg, a database editor who designed the map for USA Today, said he was following a trend: “The reason I did it was because everybody was already doing it that way at that point.”

After doing a little research, and reading about the various opinions, I don't like the fact that the colors were changed in the first place (if the motive was anything other than a good one)  I do think they did it to try to unconsciously get the voters thinking the Republicans are closer to being socialists which is a disingenuous ploy when you break down what the platforms are really all about.

But, in the end blue is cold and destructive, and red is warm and inviting, so I suppose the colors as they are is fine.

That said, I am a constitutionalist, first, not a party guy, per se, so to be honest, my color is not red, blue, white, black, green, yellow, orange or brown.  Like the Constitution, it's the color of parchment.

Then again, on a crime table using colors for types of crimes, I thought it was appropriate that on that chart, blue is the color of theft, and red is the color of firearms.  I found it when I googled "what is the color of fraud".  Fraud, it turns out, is orange.

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