Where did the whole "Red state, Blue state" thing come from and do you find it useful in discussing American politics?

It kind of started back in 1976 when color came to television and the election results were put on a color-coded map that was readily viewable by all. Color-coded maps were nothing new, but not really common before color television and four-color newspapers became the norm. And it wasn’t until 2000 (yes, a mere fifteen years ago!) that “Red = Republican, Blue = Democrat” thing came about as an attempt to get all the media outlets to use a consistent color scheme.

I find it is of useful as the geography matches the cultural borders.

Most of the states that lean Republican and show up as red on electoral maps are full of people a bit more Christian than us heathens. Conversely, all of the states where women and minorities are not specifically discriminated against by law (and, in fact, have legal protections) tend to be in one of two places; the Northeast and the West coast.

It’s a little more complex in that a lot of Southerners are ideologically aligned with the Midwest but have a distinct cultural identity, while the same is true in that the West coast is quite different from New England, but the difference between a Seattlite and a Vermonter is relatively minor compared to the differences from Texans, Georgians, Iowans, or people from other “red” states. Those from “blue” states are not terribly different from many Canadians or Western Europeans while those from Dixie and the Heartland are from a different country that happens to be ruled (to the extent that they obey) from the US capital.

You could separate the US along party lines and only have three pieces, two of which used to actually be independent sovereign nations for about four years a while back. Because SO many things vary in ways that coincide with the red/blue you see on the maps, the dichotomy between red and blue is quite relevant so long as we have that sort of “two nations ruled from one capital” thing happening.

It was red for Democrats on some channels back in the day. Reagan from the coastal state of California with the blue Pacific was a sea of blue electoral votes across the United States on some maps. Then everyone eventually fell in line and decided we should not associate the Democrats with the color red and it switched. Just think about it. What if Obama or Bernie Sanders had “red” votes?

Edit: worth noting, many countries do use red for left leaning and blue for right leaning, so you have to be careful not to use the terms red state and blue state with people outside our country or you might miscommunicate.

It’s because of the Electoral College. If your state has more Republican votes than Democrat, the whole state’s Electoral votes go to that candidate, and the state acquires that party’s color on the big televised US map. (Red = Republican, blue = Democrat.)

Democrats = blue skies, clean water, and dolphins
Republicans = rednecks and red meat

(According to me)

@kritiper The parties didn’t have any “official” color until 200 though. Until then, which party was which color varied depending on who made the map.

@JLeslie In those places, both of our parties are considered “conservative”; by their standards, it’s merely a difference of how far to the right one leans.

@jerv I never heard the terms “red state” or “blue state” until after 2000 so I’ll stand by my answer.

One state, two state, ....nevermind.

That is closely related to another question, “Why is it so hard to start a third political party?” The answer is that all members of all parties are drawn from the same group of voters, and their desires don’t vary all that much. A party has to win an election to have any credibility, so the platform is modified any way it has to be to draw in supporters. The result is that there is no great difference between parties and they have to adopt colors to be sure everybody knows who is who. We have a red party, a blue party, and a green party, and at that point one wonders what brand of soda pop the green party drinks.