Today, we hear a lot about Red State Republicans and Blue State Democrats. Identifying political parties by color is relatively new in American society.
In the 1960s, color television was slowly being introduced to American homes. News programs began showing color-coded electoral maps, but neither Democrats nor Republicans were assigned a permanent color.
During the Cold War — with red the color for communists and the Red Scare of McCarthyism — TV news couldn’t consistently identify either party as “red” without being accused of bias.
An article by David Scott Kastan on thecoversation.com explains that “depending on the election or the network, red and blue were variously assigned to Democrats and Republicans. On election night in 1980, when it became clear that Ronald Reagan was going to defeat Jimmy Carter, a television anchor pointed to the color-coded studio map showing the emerging Republican victory and said it was starting to look like “a suburban swimming pool.”
As the night progressed that election night showing a landslide for Reagan, another TV commentator described it as an “ocean of blue.”
Obviously, the color blue did not stick with the Republican party after that election cycle.
Fast-forward to the 2000 presidential election night between George W. Bush and Al Gore, when neither candidate held a majority in the electoral college. That year, the three major networks had chosen red to show states won by Bush and blue for Gore on their electoral maps.
For 36 days, the American public watched television coverage of the various recounts. On Dec. 12, it was finally decided after the U.S. Supreme Court put a stop to the third recount, making Florida a “red state,” and Bush became the 43rd President of the United States.
“Night after night of television coverage had fixed our political colors in the national imagination: red for Republicans and blue for Democrats,” said Kastan. “What was once discretionary and variable became a permanent feature of the country’s political imagery to signal the country’s ideological divide.”
Colors assigned to the other political parties in America are: Libertarian, yellow; Green Party, green; Constitution Party, blue and gold; Independent, grey.
With the exception of Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, the Show Me State has voted for Republican presidential candidates since Reagan’s “ocean of blue.” Between 1945 and 1967, our state helped put Democrats in power. From 1968 to 1996, there was a mixture of Democrats and Republicans.
For the last eight years, Missouri has been a solid red state, to the point that national politicians don’t feel the need to campaign here.
Besides presidential candidates, there are other characteristics that define the difference between red and blue states.
Blue states traditionally have the following:
• Higher taxes
• Lax or no laws for the use of marijuana
• Abortion on demand up to birth
• Greater restriction on gun ownership
• High minimum wage laws
On the ballot this November, Missouri voters will have the choice to accept or reject two ballot measures that, if passed, will make us resemble the state of Oregon.
First is Amendment 3. This change in our constitution will put fewer restrictions on abortion than California and New Jersey, which don’t allow abortion after viability — the point where the baby can survive outside the womb.
Next is Proposition A. This changes Missouri law to increase the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2026 and then continually rise each year based on the Consumer Price Index. This law could make Missouri one of the most expensive places for small businesses to operate in the United States, with a higher minimum wage than the blue states of Oregon, Rhode Island, and Illinois.
Missourians have a choice. Do we want to live in a blue state that resembles Oregon, California and Illinois? We have already voted to legalize the use of marijuana.
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As a follow-up to my column from last week — “Illegal immigration is destroying our country” — the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed last week that over 13K illegal immigrants convicted of murder have been released into the U.S. and that ICE is tracking 425,000 migrants who have criminal convictions ranging from theft to rape.
