this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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As an American, you just gave a better context for the stuff I did understand than most Americans could.
The colors weren't red and blue back then, they were Navy Blue (North) and Grey (South). While it's true that most of the south was predominantly Democrat back then, the events leading up to and including the Southern Strategy in the mid to late 20th century, cause the Republicans to stop being the progressive party, and become the fascist party. The Democrat didn't really move much to the left during that whole mess. That is why you'll see the southern states being referred to as red states today, because they are gerrymandered to guarantee Republican victories.
WTF?!? No!
The maps presented on election night had pseudo random colors. One color for Democrats, one for Republicans, and a third for other parties. These tended to change with TV network and election year.
In 2000, the election went on and on and on due to the tight results. In that year the Republicans were assigned Red and the Democrats blue on many networks. Things were contentious.
From that point on those colors were then used as shorthand for areas that voted for Republicans or Democrats. Things continues to present and Republicans tend to wear red, and Democrats blue.
Publishing this and going to find a source.
Edit source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-were-blue-and-democrats-were-red-104176297/
Actually a great read.