ShareThisBy JOSH SWARTZLANDER
Monday, November 06, 2006
TV anchors will point at flashy maps next week as midterm election results roll in, reducing months of campaigning, punditry, scandal and debate into a two-toned metaphor for America's sociopolitical divisions.
Which races will go blue and which will go red?
Over the last half decade, "red" and "blue" have etched themselves deeply into the American political lexicon.
"It gives people a certain image of cosmopolitans versus the heartland," said Andrew Gelman, professor of political science at Columbia University.
"Red state" and "blue state" became household phrases after the 2000 election, said Grant Barrett, a lexicographer for Oxford University Press in New York.
The 2000 U.S. electoral map _ showing a red George Bush-supporting block across the country's midsection framed by blue Al Gore-supporting coasts _ played on cable news stations for more than a month as votes were counted and recounted. The map looked nearly identical in the 2004 presidential election.
"It was very dramatic that Democrats were winning the states in the coasts and around the Great Lakes," said Gelman, co-author of the political science paper "Rich state, poor state, red state, blue state: What's the matter with Connecticut?" "For the Republicans, it's a good story: 'We have the support from the center of the country.'"
"The colors certainly started to seep into our consciousness in 2000," especially after late-night talk show hosts and pundits began using the phrases, said Dennis Baron, professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Since 2000, when states were defined as "blue" or "red" by which presidential candidate received their electoral votes, the terms have morphed into pop-culture phrases meaning "left of center" and "right of center," Barrett said.
The terms indicate a "visceral or gut identification with certain values," such as stances on embryonic stem cell research, abortion and gun control, said Don Davis, author of "One State Two State Red State Blue State: A Satirical Guide to the Political and Culture Wars." "Some of the more important issues such as economics or foreign policy tend to get put on the back burner because of the emotional issues."
Barrett agreed. "These are stereotyping terms," he said. "No whole state went for Bush. It's county by county, rural and urban, lowlands and highlands."
Hence the term "purple state," the offspring of "red" and "blue" that has come to mean a near-even mix of the two colors.
On MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews last year, Jane Fonda argued against pinning people as "blue-staters" and "red-staters."
"There's a little bit of red and a little bit of blue in all of us," she said. "And we end up purple." She made similar comments last month on "The Charlie Rose Show."
Barrett said he didn't see any end in sight for blue, red and purple representations of America.
Said Baron: "The map is visual. It's a nice contrast of colors. It's sort of patriotic. It seems to capture the public's imagination."
He added: "If the Green Party ever gets on the map, that could get interesting."
(Reach Josh Swartzlander at shws3(at)shns.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
