The New “Reds”
22nd December 2022
The political meaning of Red was once loud and clear. No more—at least in the United States. A unilateral decision was made by the national television networks in the contentious presidential year of 2000 to have Red represent the Republican Party and Blue the Democratic one. One prominent network television executive justified this arbitrary and counter-intuitive decision by pointing out that the Republican Party begins with the letter r, hardly a compelling reason for reversing political symbolism deeply rooted in the political experience of modern man since the late eighteenth century. As a result, American conservatives are now the new “Reds,” a change of language and symbolism that is truly startling if anyone took the time to think about it.
This is not, strictly speaking, true. Back in the 1970s I purchased a board game that was based on American Presidential politics, and it had Republicans as red and Democrats as blue. So I suspect that it’s older than the 2000 election. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate.