The History Of Party Colors In The United States
Prior;to the United States presidential election of 2000, which party was Red and which was Blue was largely a matter of which color a news outlet chose.;On the October 30, 2000, episode of the Today show, Tim Russert coined the terms red state and blue state.
As far back as the 1888 election blue was used to represent the northern Union states and red the south, but this wasnt consistent throughout time . In the 70s and 80s the major networks starting using lighted maps to illustrate election results. Democrats were often coded blue and Republicans red, but it wasnt consistent. This inconsistent coloring continued throughout the Clinton years and up to the Gore Vs. Bush. This can all be varied by old videos and articles.
Democrats And Republicans: Blue And Red Or Red And Blue
Lycaon pictus said:If you mean “conservative” in the sense of “maintaining as much of the status quo as humanly possibly” there’s a good case that they still are. The Democrats are the ones trying to keep the social safety net intact, while Republicans want to replace it with uh I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Nerdlinger said:The age-old question: On US electoral maps, should the Democrats be blue and the Republicans red, as is recent American practice, or should the Democrats be red and Republicans blue to better reflect the colors more associated with their ideologies on an international level?
ColeMercury
ColeMercury said:Democrats blue, Republicans red. That’s the convention that’s been developed, so there’s no point in flipping it around just because. And if your justification is ideology, the Democrats aren’t a socialist or social-democratic party so they shouldn’t be coloured red anyway.
zoomar
zoomar said:Wow, with my vote it’s exactly 50-50.I don’t know how the current color coding got started, but it makes no sense. Red is almost universally associated with the left. Blue has a less clear ideological meaning, but if you use blue, it should by default refer to conservatives in the US. I vote for Red=Democrats, Blue=Republican.
19942010
While Many Conservative Parties Around The World Are Associated With Blue In Us Elections The Republicans Are Denoted By Red And The Convention Is A Relatively Recent Development
For those who dont follow US politics closely, aspects of the vote might seem confusing from how the electoral college and popular vote work to which swing states can .
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The uninitiated might also be unfamiliar with the maps and graphics on TV showing states turn red and blue as the results are announced heres how the colours work.
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Red States And Blue States
Since around the 2000 United States presidential election, red states and blue states have referred to states of the United States whose voters predominantly choose either the Republican Party or Democratic Party presidential and senatorial candidates. Since then, the use of the term has been expanded to differentiate between states being perceived as liberal and those perceived as conservative. Examining patterns within states reveals that the reversal of the two parties’ geographic bases has happened at the state level, but it is more complicated locally, with urban-rural divides associated with many of the largest changes.
All states contain both liberal and conservative voters and only appear blue or red on the electoral map because of the winner-take-all system used by most states in the Electoral College. However, the perception of some states as “blue” and some as “red” was reinforced by a degree of partisan stability from election to electionfrom the 2000 election to the 2004 election, only three states changed “color” and as of 2020, fully 35 out of 50 states have voted for the same party in every presidential election since the red-blue terminology was popularized in 2000.
The Psychology Of Tie Colors In The Race For President
Have you ever asked yourself the question why we only see red and blue ties on presidential candidates as of recently? Some might argue that candidates will choose those ties that best reflects their partys identify, meaning red ties for Republican Romney, and blue ties for Democrat President Obama, but this is only partially true.
Take Tuesdays Presidential debate for instance. Romney wore a bright blue and white striped tie while Obama opted for a burgundy-red piece, a change that I was very happy to see. Pre-debate I was actually hoping that Obama would be wearing a red tie a color that is synonymous with power, confidence, and excitement all things Obama lacked in the first debate.
Obama is Taking Charge, Wearing a Burgundy-Red Tie
I am now making the argument that Obamas red tie helped him step up his game during the last debate. Not only did the tie grabbed the audiences attention, but I strongly belief that it gave President Obama a boost of confidence after taking a look in the mirror.
The psychology & emotional effects of colors is definitely nothing new. In fact, psychologists have been researching the meaning of colors for decades, if not centuries, and evidence does indeed prove that certain colors do evoke certain emotional responses in people. This is nothing new to presidential candidates who pay attention to what colors to pick out for a public appearance.
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Its A Tie: Presidential Debates As Accessory To Democracy
BETHESDA, MD OCTOBER 04: In this handout provided by The White House, President Donald Trump participates in a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley in his conference room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 4, 2020 in Bethesda, Maryland. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is also present in the room on the call.
He did not wear a tie. Thus, the media rang the alarm. Reuters, BBC, Newsweek and other outlets singled out President Trumps tie-lessness as part of the news coverage following his COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization. In pop culture, the sight of a national leader without a tie is troubling. Think Hugh Grant dancing around Downing Street as Prime Minister in Love Actually or Morgan Freeman announcing the literal end of the world as President Beck in Deep Impact. We are much more aware of subtle political dress codes than we realize. As tensions mount over the upcoming US election, lets take a look at one of its unwavering protagonists through the years. A classic necktie.
TOPSHOT This combination of pictures created on September 29, 2020 shows US President Donald Trump during the first presidential debate with Democratic Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29, 2020.
Which States Are Considered Red And Which Are Blue
To go along with the colors, the terms red state and blue state were popularized by anchorman Tim Russert during and immediately after the 2000 election. Today, these terms are used to refer to which party a state voted for during a presidential election.;
Generally speaking, the Northeast and the West Coast are considered a collection of blue states as most of them have sided with the Democrats since the early 1990s.
The Southern states have sided with Republicans since the 2000s, while the Midwest tends to be tougher to predict. For example, Illinois and Minnesota are currently considered blue states, while Missouri and Nebraska are red. Hawaii and Alaska have been traditionally considered blue and red respectively as neither has switched parties since the late 1980s .
The Southwest has been split since 2000 with Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado going blue more often than red and Utah and Arizona voting predictably red. Finally, we come to the coveted purple states or swing states,;such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These states switched colors in recent elections and are often a key focus of electoral campaigning and strategy. Swing states can vary by election year.
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Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain take part in the first debate of the 2008 elections at the University of Mississippi on September 26, 2008 in Oxford, MS. AFP PHOTO / PAUL J. RICHARDS
;The default color scheme for presidential ties is so conservative that it is nearly impossible to imagine something like pistachio, fuchsia or neon-anything ever making the cut. Sometimes, of course, being an outlier can help secure the needed benefit of the doubt. Bob Dole wore a moderate-green tie to his 1996 debate against the incumbent Bill Clinton. Such a choice helped create an overall image that pundits found informed, thoughtful, and elevated. It briefly albeit unsuccessfully buoyed Doles campaign. Hillary Clinton did not wear ties during her runs for the presidency. Still, her accessories were scrutinized by the media with particular focus on , bracelets, and headbands. Alternately, when democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang showed up to a 2019 Democratic Primary debate with no tie at all, his historic bold move turned heads across the political spectrum from Fox News to the New Yorker. Ultimately, it was a minor side note in what cost him the nomination proving that the country is just not ready for a tie-less president.
Why Do We Have Red States And Blue States
If youve watched the news as a presidential election heats up, youre probably well aware that political pundits like to use the color red to represent the Republican Party and blue for the Democratic Party. A red state votes Republican in presidential elections and Senate races, while a blue state leans Democratic.
No matter which news program you favor, they all use these same colors to represent the parties. So it would be reasonable to assume these must be the official colors of these two parties and have been used for over a hundred years, right?
Surprisingly no. Republicans havent always been associated with the color red, nor have Democrats affiliated their party with blue. In fact, the whole notion of consistently attaching a particular hue to each political party is a relatively new concept in the US, not emerging as a common distinction until the 2000 presidential election between Democrat and Vice President Al Gore and Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush.
But why red for Republicans? And why does blue stand for Democrats?
Lets break it down.
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When Its Time To Head Back To The Office And On The Few Days When I Wear A Suit And Tie I Should Retire My Red Ties Right Unless I Want Everyone To Assume I Am A Trump Supporter Is It Possible For Any Man To Wear A Red Tie Now And Not Immediately Call To Mind The Former President Ken Newton Mass
Though the death of the tie is declared regularly especially given the pressures of both the long-term office-casual movement and our current working-from-home reality Guy Trebay, our mens wear critic, maintains that you should not count the accessory out quite yet. As he said, even if were not wearing them much during lockdown, you dont want to give up on an element of the wardrobe thats been around for 400 years.
Ties can, after all, be used to signal your club, your interests, whether you are a jokester, a brainiac or even a clown. Not to mention, as you say, political affiliation.
The question is whether the party dividing line between red and blue that has swept even the necktie into its maw will remain uppermost in everyones minds now that unity is the word of the moment . Given how central red ties were to President Trumps uniform, it is natural to think that we may now have a Pavlovian response to the color. But the fact is, red ties were a wardrobe staple long before Mr. Trump got hold of them.
Its the combination of shade and style that makes the statement of allegiance, not simply one or the other. Thats what you should keep in mind when getting dressed. Then go ahead: Tie one on.
When Red Meant Democratic And Blue Was Republican A Brief History Of Tv Electoral Maps
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Forty years ago this week, TV started telling the story of the presidential election as a battle between red states and blue states.;
When the die-hards and political junkies who stayed up until 3:30 a.m. Eastern time on Nov. 3, 1976, watched NBCs John Chancellor call Mississippi and the election for Jimmy Carter, they saw the win signified on the 14-foot-high molded plastic map of the United States;mounted on a wall behind the anchor.
————For the RecordNov. 8, 3:41 p.m.: The caption for the 1976 photograph of the original NBC electoral map misidentifies Cassie Mackin as Jessica Savitch.————
The state was then lighted up in red the color the network had assigned for the Democratic candidate.
The party colors were eventually reversed. But from that night forward, that;simple piece of stagecraft in Studio 8H at;Rockefeller Center became the visual shorthand in detailing the race for the 270 electoral votes needed for the White House.;
Digital versions of the electoral map have since become a living;tool for on-air analysts ;a way of feeding;election-night suspense as each state turns red or blue. Since 2008, CNNs John King has presented electoral college scenarios on a touch-screen the cable news network called its magic wall.
It is so beautiful I wish that after the election I could take it home, but I dont have a room big enough to hold it. Its enormous and it’s gorgeous.
David Brinkley
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Medias Red Vs Blue Usage:
The Presidential election of 2000 saw the Blue vs Red ideology take hold.; Network anchors and pundits relied heavily on coloured maps in order to display how close the race was between George W Bush and Al Gore. This set a precedent with regards to the coverage of presidential; elections and as a result coined the deep rooted Blue vs Red associations and culture we see today. Over time, the use of these coloured maps not only defined the states that vote Democratic or Republican but also formulated a way to describe the cultural values associated with American electoral geography. Red and Blue terminology can be seen everywhere in American life from Modern Party iconography, in the name of consulting groups such as Blue State Digital, coffee brands such as Blue State Coffee and even fast food joints Red State BBQ in the state of Kentucky. In a study carried out by Business Insider, one can clearly see the differences in Blue America as opposed to Red America:
The Latest Key Updates On The 2020 Us Election Results
However, in the US blue represents the more left-leaning Democrats, while the Republicans denoted by red, as per Donald Trumps Make America Great Again caps.
One might assume that the colours represent a long-standing tradition, but theyre a relatively recent feature of US elections.
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According to Professor David Scott Kastan of Yale University, writing inThe Conversation, the systems origins lie in the spread of colour TV in the late 1960s, when colour-coded maps were first used on election TV broadcasts.
The red and blue colouring was a nod to the British system, The Verge reports, but initially there was no permanent colour association for either party.
TV networks changed the map coding from election to election, with Prof Kastan explaining: In Cold War America, networks couldnt consistently identify one party as red the color of communists and, in particular, the Soviet Union without being accused of bias.
Indeed, there were famous US election nights where the current colour scheme was memorably reversed.
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Five Years Ago Obama Was Blasted For Wearing A Tan Suit Now Its Used To Contrast Him With Trump
Ronald Reagan wore tan suits during his presidency. So did Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
But on Aug. 28, 2014, when President Barack Obama showed up for a White House news conference dressed in beige, the light-colored suit became a matter of national import. Rep. Peter T. King fumed that the suit pointed to a lack of seriousness on the presidents part, cable news shows held roundtable discussions, fashion critics and image consultants weighed in, and TV news reporters conducted man-on-the-street interviews to find out what the people of Northeast Ohio thought of the controversial look.
Five years later, however, Tan Suit Gate has taken on a different meaning, coming to symbolize the relative dearth of scandals during the Obama administration. On social media, just about every news item about potential conflicts of interests within the Trump administration and the presidents flouting of norms is met with some variant of Remember when Obama wore a tan suit? In the past week alone, the tan suit comparison has been leveled against President Trumps assertion that he is the chosen one, his demand that U.S. companies leave China, and his desire to hold next years Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort just to name a few examples.
If he wants to wear a tan suit, he can wear a tan suit, one woman said. Another asked, Why are we so concerned about the color of a suit?
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