The Internet was a mistake.

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.

The red/blue colors started on NBC in 1976:

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The country has always been divided. Rural vs Urban, Slave vs Free, Immigrant vs Native, and so forth. Its a large diverse nation with imperial ambitions. Division is baked into the pudding. Red vs blue is just the most recent incarnation.

It probably can be said to have started in the 90s when the parties consolidated ideologically. Blue Dog Democrats and liberal Republicans all got eliminated in a relatively short window. That hardened the edges between the parties.

As I posted upthread, this was the completion of the "southern strategy" consolidation. It wasn't that they were eliminated.

It is no different now with MAGA taking over the GOP and we are seeing conservative republicans now move to Biden. Eventually, hopefully, MAGA and the organization that is the GOP will go away and a new conservative party will emerge. or The Dems become more of a centrist party and a separate progressive party and separate conservative party emerge.

The Southern Strategy predates the ideological consolidation. It was the 1994 election that really began the end of liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats.

Unfortunately, we're stuck with this state of affairs because of the winner take all nature of our elections. Two parties are all that can reasonably exist for any length of time.

The Constitution creates a two party system because it's winner take all.

Anonymous wrote:The country has always been divided. Rural vs Urban, Slave vs Free, Immigrant vs Native, and so forth. Its a large diverse nation with imperial ambitions. Division is baked into the pudding. Red vs blue is just the most recent incarnation.

It probably can be said to have started in the 90s when the parties consolidated ideologically. Blue Dog Democrats and liberal Republicans all got eliminated in a relatively short window. That hardened the edges between the parties.

As I posted upthread, this was the completion of the "southern strategy" consolidation. It wasn't that they were eliminated.

It is no different now with MAGA taking over the GOP and we are seeing conservative republicans now move to Biden. Eventually, hopefully, MAGA and the organization that is the GOP will go away and a new conservative party will emerge. or The Dems become more of a centrist party and a separate progressive party and separate conservative party emerge.

The country has always been divided. Rural vs Urban, Slave vs Free, Immigrant vs Native, and so forth. Its a large diverse nation with imperial ambitions. Division is baked into the pudding. Red vs blue is just the most recent incarnation.

It probably can be said to have started in the 90s when the parties consolidated ideologically. Blue Dog Democrats and liberal Republicans all got eliminated in a relatively short window. That hardened the edges between the parties.

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.

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

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 would say Newt Gingrich 'started" it, but frankly, the era before Newt was the shifting of the parties as a result of the Southern Strategy, which saw racist southern white move from the Dems to the GOP.

So the period of the 1970's and 1980's saw racist whites in both parties and hence a lot of compromise between parties on legislation.

Once the shift was largely complete, it was concurrent with the development of Fox News and the emergence of Rush Limbaugh (1980's to 2010's) and later MSNBC as more partisan media outlets.

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

The Fairness Doctrine was abolished under Reagan. That paved the way for the current partisan media landscape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine

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.

For the past 20 to 25 years, our two major parties have utilized "journalism" tainted with political bias to their advantages by using fear tactics to separate two "sides" like they have never been separated before. The Fox News crowd will vote for a light pole to keep an evil Dem candidate from winning and the MSNBC crowd will vote for a mailbox in order to keep the evil GOP candidate out of office. These careless voting tactics are why we've experienced a continual decline in the quality of leadership in our Federal Government. It's impossible to ignore.

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.