Red vs Blue; Left vs Right

One of the most annoying political tactics of the left in recent decades has been the switch of party colors.

Blogger Kevin Drum in a post entitled Red State, Blue State gives an explanation for why the socialist are now considered the “blue” party despite well over a century of red being the color of leftist, socialist, Communist and Marxist the world over. According to Drum the red state/blue state flip was an agreement reached between the parties in the early years of color television. The thought at the time was that most Americans saw the color red as a negative due to its association with international communism. The television news programs decided to alternate the color of the incumbent Presidential party on their election charts every four years. The Democrats being portrayed as blue since the 2000 election then is supposedly a matter of chance based on this old agreement.

Even if this is so the Republicans were fools to allow the Democrats to side step the issue and assume the blue that has long been associated with liberty and freedom in America. The Democrats are the party of socialism pure and simple and they should be forced to wear the colors they have earned. The switch to me seems to fit Alinsky’s Rule “# 3. Whenever possible go outside the experience of the enemy.” Learned color patterns are an important part of the human thought process. In western culture the color black is often associated with death while in parts of Asia white is the color associated with death; colors have meaning to the human psyche. Forcing the color change has an unsettling effect, I for one will not wear red in support of a political party.

The list below from Kevin Drum’s blog post shows how this formula has applied since 1976:

1976

Republican

Blue = Ford

Red = Carter

1980

Democratic

Red = Carter

Blue = Reagan

1984

Republican

Blue = Reagan

Red = Mondale

1988

Republican

Red = Bush

Blue = Dukakis

1992

Republican

Blue = Bush

Red = Clinton

1996

Democratic

Red = Clinton

Blue = Dole

2000

Democratic

Blue = Gore

Red = Bush

2004

Republican

Red = Bush

Blue = Kerry

“This fits all the available evidence, and also explains why Democrats have usually been colored red: it’s a coincidence. In the six elections prior to 2000 every Democrat but one had been coded red, but that was just because of how the cycle of incumbency happened to work out during that period.

And as Petey points out in email, this raises an interesting question: what will happen in 2008? The formula will assign blue to the Republicans, but the red state/blue state divide has now become so entrenched it’s hard to imagine anyone switching colors at this point. I guess in four years we’ll find out just how anal the network mapping gurus really are.” -Kevin Drum

Now I personally find this explanation a bit weak but I also am very interested to see if they continue with the alternation of the color scheme now that so much propaganda has been worked up praising the “blue states” and disparaging “red state” voters. Now we know what happened in 2008, the color pattern did not change and the democrats held on to blue. The socialist have invested in too much propaganda describing red state voters as ignorant boobs to continue the agreed upon pattern alteration. The socialist delight in manipulating the masses and this color switch is just another example of their mastery of propaganda techniques.

If the Republicans are still shown as the red party in 2012 it is just another confirmation that the US media is aiding and abetting the socialist takeover of America. If the Republicans protest the locked in color change then they look like they are being ridiculously obsessive about unimportant details. If they just tacitly accept the color coup then they have ceded the “good” color to the Democrats and allowed themselves to be tarred by the color of our international enemies. If we demand the colors continue to be changed as agreed we are being “anal”. We are also supposed to think that no manipulation has taken place as the decision is after all just a small detail determined by nameless “network mapping gurus”. Lose, lose. Once more the Democrats show that they are unwilling to play by the rules that they agreed to follow. No reds here in your friendly Democratic Socialist party just move along, nothing to see here…

PS: Remember all the outrage during the 2008 campaign when anyone dared to mention that Obama was a hard core socialist? Oh no he isn’t a socialist is he? What would possibly make anyone think that, gee, doesn’t he look swell with his nice blue tie.

[NOTE: The graphic used above is available as a poster at Patriot Post Shop]

© Jesse James

Originally posted at Light in the Forest

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