republican pool

why red states and blue states? no, i’m not talking about why we have democratsand republicans (i did that already) why the colors?!?? okay, betsy ross, i get it, the american flag… but republicans/red democrats/blue, throughhistory, its actually been all over the place. back in the civil war days because of theuniforms, blue was often used for the north, which was controlled by lincoln and the republicans. then into the 20th century, red started tobe linked with communism and socialists, so the liberal democrats were often called red.

but really, for awhile, anyone tuning intotelevision didn’t even see colors. through the 70s and 80s, nbc continued thetrend of using blue for republican, famously referring to reagan’s landslide a suburbanswimming pool. then, by the time we got the 2000 election,maybe because tv was more sensitive to adding too much meaning to colors, for maybe becausered and republican start with r, many networks started to settle on red/republican blue/democrat. t was this election, and its controversy inflorida which seared the election map into american’s brains. you can also thank journalist tim russertfor being the first terms “red states”

and “blue states on national tv. ya know, its all really more of a purplelycolor when you look at the popular vote, anyway… the rest was history.