Blue and Red

[Spider Jerusalem]

I find it rather interesting that Democratic votes are represented on the electoral map by being coloured blue, while Republican areas are red. The origins of this are in military war games; the defending force (generally speaking, the "home team", the "good guys") are blue, whilst the opposing force (the invaders, the enemy, the "bad guys") are red.

Seems fitting, but you have to wonder if the Republicans are totally unaware of the symbolism.

[happyslug]

1. Yes, but the colors were picked based on Military mapping

i.e. The real thing. When in Combat you plot your own men in Blue and the enemy in Red. The enemy is red for red is the easier color to see quickly. Thus you can better see (on a map) what the enemy is up to.

Red being "easier" to pick up at a glance is why the GOP uses Red on the maps. People will see the map on TV will see the all the RED and when told that is GOP will say GOP is winning even if they are not.

Thus the reason for the GOP using Red is the same reason the Army uses Red for its enemy, to better show off what they want people to see.

[samwisefoxburr]

2. Actually it was something like that before 2000...

Look at these election maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election_maps

But, since 2000 it became to mean Dems=Blue Repubs=Red. Guess it must have been the ignorance emerging from the woodwork since Bush was running.

[Village Idiot]

3. Didn't it mean:

Blue for the incumbent, Red for the challenger? Until 2000, that is...

[samwisefoxburr]

5. I honestly don't know how the colors worked...

...I just learned about this myself a few months ago. But, it doesn't seem like it would mean that because in 1992 Clinton was red, but he was also red in 1996. Plus in an election year like 2000, when there is no incumbent or challenger, who gets what color?

[PSU84]

4. It's simpler than that.

Because the Democrats are the party of the left, one MIGHT think they would have been assigned the color red. But, when this convention of "red" and "blue" was adopted by the networks many years ago, the Cold War was very much a daily reality and the communists were called "Reds" - as in Red China. It would have raised a firestorm of protest among Democrats to have been assigned red as their color on election maps. Simple solution: Color the Reps red and the Dems Blue. That is how it happened....