the red and the blue
I discovered this map at Strange Maps, showing how France voted in the first round of presidential elections, held back in April.* But I soon found I couldn't concentrate on its actual purpose, which was to show geographical concentrations of votes for each party, because I was so thrown by the color scheme. The map uses blue to represent the conservative party and red for the liberal party, the reverse of the United States, where, these days, blue means Democrat and red means Republican.
I was trying to think of what justification France could possibly have for doing it backwards, when I realized that, in fact, it was the US color scheme that was backwards. Red is the color traditionally associated with the left -- the Red Army, better red than dead, the red background of the flag of the old USSR. In France and other European countries, the symbol of one of the parties of the left is a red rose. In Canada, the political colors are Liberal red and Tory blue. So, the real question was why did the US reverse the colors' usual meanings?
I consulted the relevant article at Wikipedia, but found it singularly unenlightening. Its explanation was that in the 2000 presidential election the networks had decided to use red for Republicans and blue for Democrats. Because of the Florida fiasco, the blue and red electoral maps remained on tv screens for weeks, cementing the association in people's minds. Of course, this doesn't explain why the colors were assigned that way in the first place and, to make matters more consfusing, the article also notes that, before 2000, red had more frequently been used for Democrats and blue for Republicans. Someone else proposed the explanation that the color choice in 2000 was part of a regular alternation of blue and red, with networks using first one, then the other for the incumbent party. But I don't think that's right either, since, as far as I can recall, before 2000, in any given election, there was no consistent use of colors across networks. So, what I guess I'm trying to say is that I have no solution to the mystery of the colors that traded places. Any thoughts, surmises or wild guesses?
*The illegible words next to the blue and red dots on the left are the names of France's overseas departments, indicating how they voted.
25 comments:
No guesses, but it doesn't surprise me.
Our country has an arrogant and dangerous tradition of ignoring historical precedent.
Or, it's because our educational system is woeful, and history is taught incompletely and poorly.
No idea, but the US colour scheme does confuse me as I'm used to Labour being red and Conservative being blue.
That explains why the US elections keep confusing me! Like Caro said in the UK the left os red, and the right is blue. Though they all occupy the same wishy washy middle ground anyway!
Yeah, it confuses me too (as a New Zealander). Once upon a time, the Republicans were leftwing, though, right? Could that have something to do with it?
(Although that doesn't explain why it isn't back-to-front in other countries that have had major shifts like that: e.g. Australia where the "Liberal" party is right of centre, and in Denmark where the major right wing party is called "Venstre" ("left").
Stylegeek: The Republicans were the anti-slavery party at the time of the US Civil War, which I guess could be considered left. But I'm pretty sure that for many years, at least since the Great Depression and the New Deal of the 1930s, they've been to the right of the Democrats.
And that's very strange and kind of amusing that Denmark's rightist party calls itself "Left." I can't imagine why. Maybe to confuse people into voting for them??? Or perhaps the spectrum of parties has shifted over time??)
And red diaper babies, and pinkos - more uses of red=left.
I don't remember colors being associated with Democrat / Republican in quite the same articulated way before the 2000 election - the hypothesis that it had to do with how long that vote counting nonsense went on, and thereby seared the colors into the country's brain, is quite plausible I think.
Magpie: I think you're absolutely right. My only question is why they didn't pick blue for Republicans and red for Democrats in light of the pre-existing association of red with left.
I know tv used that color scheme in the past since I'm old enough to remember the 1984 election, when electoral maps like this one showed a sea of blue for Reagan, with isolated islands of red for Mondale.
Wasn't there a David Brooks piece in the Atlantic, about "Blue" and "Red" America (probably 1998? 1999?), and how blue America shops at Whole Foods, drinks wine, recycles, and reads out loud to its children, while red America shops at 7-11, drinks Bud, hunts larger rodents, and attends Nascar? It was both inaccurate and provocative, but that's DB for you.
I'm not going to comment on whether fault is relevant here, or whether even if it were, American historians are at fault, but really it was just an arbitrary decision on the part of the networks. Red, white, and blue, just came up because of the flag. The real problem is why Americans insist on using "liberal" and "liberalism" incorrectly in the first place. And that's a book of it's own, not just a simple matter of our being uneducated.
You pose some great questions and help to explain why I find the American use of the colors so counterintuitive.
I bet is was the result of some random decision made by the networks....
We are just backwards in the US! I think the extended airtime associated with the 2000 debaucle did help to solidify our backward color scheme. I did a social studies project on the 1988 election, and I know the majority of my map was blue (for rightie George HW Bush).
I agree with you that I have found this confusing in recent years. I always associated (and I don't know why exactly) blue with Republican and red with Democrats. I still have to think twice when people start spouting off about blue and red states to remember which goes with which.
Niobe, Stylegeek is completely right about our political parties here in Australia. Our mainstream Right-wing party are called the Liberals and their colour is Blue and our main-stream left-wing party is called the Labor party (in reference to the working classes) and they are red (in reference to the socialist red of Russia and China). we also have 2 smaller mainstream political parties. One called The Australian Democrats who are progressive left-wing and (from memory I think they are orange) and The Australian Greens, who are socially progressive and environmentally orientated and their colour is of course green... (sorry to turn this into such a yawn fest ~I don't actually think Aussie politics would be of much interest to anyone outside Oz).
three minute palaver: I'm always fascinated to learn about other countries -- well, really to learn just about anything about anything.
So, it sounds like Australia is with everyone else except the US in using red for the left and blue for right. That's why the US choice of colors seems so strange. Maybe Slouching Mom is right, that the networks either didn't know or didn't care what the rest of the world did or what made sense historically.
And I guess the Australian right-wingers are "liberal" in the classical sense that Sara's talking about.
I wont say who we voted for! But what's that red bit north east of Paris?
Royal territory obviously. Looks odd amidst all the other blue!
England use the same system of red for the left and blue for conservative.
i know! america, while great at lots of things, kind of sucks at life in general.
i win.
I was going to comment about Canadian colours but you beat me to it, Niobe.
What always drives me to distraction is your two-party system. Though we have had a multi-party system for years and years, only the Liberals or Conservatives have ever formed government. Actually, the difference in systems is quite confusing when a young Canadian studies the USA in Grade 6. You mean that the person who runs the country ISN'T just the leader of the elected party? You vote for him/her seperately? Confusing!
Anyway - Canada: Red-Liberal (center), Blue-Conservative (right), Orange-New Democrats (left), Green-Green (social left/environmentalist/sometimes fiscal right). Do remember, though, that our Conservatives make your Democrats look like raving right-wingers.
Thanks, Delphi.
And, of course, the Canadian political system is confusing to young Americans when they study Canada in...uh...uh..well, actually, never.
I'm not sure that American schoolkids even learn about the US political system. They certainly don't study the system of any other country or even parliamentary government in general.
very interesting...I thought it was just to find something else to further divide us! ;)
A friend of mine has written a piece called "Becoming Purple" which I thought was so fascinating, this refusal to be one or the other.
Delurking to add that the British Liberal Democrats, who are supposed to be the party in the middle but who are in many ways are more left than Labour, favour a sort of goldy-yellow colour.
i think i saw a young American studying here in Canada once...just once, true, but he looked lost. probably all the colour confusion. :)
Hmmm, maybe my history hubby will have an answer for this. . .
Weird. I never knew this. It doesn't exactly surprise me though, as the U.S. does many things backwards and unexplainable.
I asked my husband (who knows everything) and he confirmed what you found, saying the networks used to switch back and forth and then after Bush/Gore they just got stuck.
Many thanks for delurking, Betty M. I'd link to your blog, but it looks like (gasp) you don't have one up yet.
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