How and when did we divide into red versus blue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think that abolishing the Fairness Doctrine made political division worse. However, the internet and social media are much larger contributors to political dysfunction. Social media makes it too easy for people to only see information that confirms their existing beliefs, and content is specifically curated to align with individual user perspectives. Algorithms that boost engagement actively encourage people to go down the rabbit hole of extremism (on both sides) because it is profitable.

Had the Fairness Doctrine not been abolished, I think social media would have evolved differently. I will never forget watching Rush Limbaugh’s television show and him calling Chelsea Clinton a dog. A child going through puberty and he felt it was acceptable to bring her into the fight and muddy her. There have been several ugly inflection points that never would have happened without the Fairness Doctrine’s disappearance.

That horrific moment with Chelsea Clinton (who was my age at the time) changed the political trajectory of many women I know. These are folks who grew up in Republican households but as adults are solid Democratic voters. It was an unforgivable attack on a child.

[Anonymous]

According to this article it happened in the 2000 Presidential election. “ The notion that there were “red states” and “blue states”—and that the former were Republican and the latter Democratic—wasn’t cemented on the national psyche until the year 2000.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-were-blue-and-democrats-were-red-104176297/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how this concept came to be and when the media and other people began referring to us as a country of red and blue?

I thought it might have started with Trump in 2016?

It reminds me of that Dr. Seuss book with the “butter side up” people fighting those who butter the bottom of the toast aka the “butter side down” people.

Red versus blue seems to create more division and fear and seems like BS.

2000 election, Bush/Gore, and done by the press. All elections are run by the press. "Biden's age," even though Trump is only 3 years younger and is suffering from dementia but this is rarely mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Internet was a mistake.

Blame Al Gore because….you know….he invented it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you asking about the use of colors red and blue? Or when the deep political divisions started?

This is the Political thread. Use your brain!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you asking about the use of colors red and blue? Or when the deep political divisions started?

I have the same question. But the red and blue colors started with the 2000 election. The US is actually unique among the rest of the world because we don’t use red for the party on the left.

I was in the Library of Congress last week and passed a large reference book opened to a map of the 1988 House elections and the Democratic seats were red and the Republican seats were blue. I think cable news coverage is what standardized the R red/D blue.

The increased polarization was also caused largely by cable news. There is no demand for 24 hour news unless people are manipulated into an exaggerated us vs them panic. There has to be a new outrage by “them” against “us” every day to keep people hooked. People were a lot less partisan in the Reagan era than they have been since Clinton.

[Anonymous]

Fairness Doctrine, Gingrich and his Contract on America, Rush Limbaugh, the rise of FOX News. It's been brewing for longer than Trump. Trump and MAGAism just took it to the next level of awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairness Doctrine, Gingrich and his Contract on America, Rush Limbaugh, the rise of FOX News. It's been brewing for longer than Trump. Trump and MAGAism just took it to the next level of awful.

+1

Our country is slowing circling the drain because of the Republicans.

[Anonymous]

Technology. It will be the undoing of our civilization. We’ve created a drug to which we are all dependent and feed ourselves the poison. Media of all kind takes advantage and creates division for money and ratings.

I read an article the other day about a VA guy arrested for monkey torture videos. WTF. His network crossed continents. The photo of him had a huge MAGA flag in the background. We are doomed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairness Doctrine, Gingrich and his Contract on America, Rush Limbaugh, the rise of FOX News. It's been brewing for longer than Trump. Trump and MAGAism just took it to the next level of awful.

+1

Our country is slowing circling the drain because of the Republicans.

It’s partially by design. Republicans love corporate raiders and this is just that on a national scale. Hostile takeover (2000’s Supreme Court decision to install Bush) followed by breaking the company up (privatization), bankrupting it and selling off the parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how this concept came to be and when the media and other people began referring to us as a country of red and blue?

I thought it might have started with Trump in 2016?

It reminds me of that Dr. Seuss book with the “butter side up” people fighting those who butter the bottom of the toast aka the “butter side down” people.

Red versus blue seems to create more division and fear and seems like BS.

2000 election, Bush/Gore, and done by the press. All elections are run by the press. "Biden's age," even though Trump is only 3 years younger and is suffering from dementia but this is rarely mentioned.

One can be 90 or 100 and not have dementia, you know.

[Anonymous]

It started in 2000 with the Florida recount and Tim Russert's electoral map'Florida Florida Florida'. Until then, networks used blue for the incumbent party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how this concept came to be and when the media and other people began referring to us as a country of red and blue?

I thought it might have started with Trump in 2016?

It reminds me of that Dr. Seuss book with the “butter side up” people fighting those who butter the bottom of the toast aka the “butter side down” people.

Red versus blue seems to create more division and fear and seems like BS.

2000 election, Bush/Gore, and done by the press. All elections are run by the press. "Biden's age," even though Trump is only 3 years younger and is suffering from dementia but this is rarely mentioned.

One can be 90 or 100 and not have dementia, you know.

That is true, but statistically speaking very few people at that age still cognitive ability needed to for a job like the President.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:iirc, networks actually used red for Gore and blue for Dubya in 2000 - I think it was 2004 when it shifted. Not sure why.

Yes the Clinton election in 1992 was definitely red for democrat and blue for republican. I also don’t know how or why it changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The red/blue colors started on NBC in 1976:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-were-blue-and-democrats-were-red-104176297/

Yes but this echoes what I and others have said already, that different newspapers and networks used the colors willy nilly until 2000 when the maps were ubiquitous for weeks.

“That’s right: In the beginning, blue was red and red was blue and they changed back and forth from election to election and network to network in what appears, in hindsight, to be a flight of whimsy. The notion that there were “red states” and “blue states”—and that the former were Republican and the latter Democratic—wasn’t cemented on the national psyche until the year 2000.”

OP, you might enjoy Steve Kornacki’s book https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-red-and-the-blue-steve-kornacki?variant=32207359115298 I haven’t read it but he did an excellent podcast all about Newt Gingrich and how he started a lot of this. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-revolution-with-steve-kornacki/id1651010434