# Rush Limbaugh wants to swap D-R colors (or at least change the subject) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 26, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208 "2008-02-26T12:07:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/1 "2008-02-26T12:07:08Z")
I’m going from memory hear because it was on the radio yesterday, and I was in a funk anyway, but I think I’ve captured the gist of it with the following context description and paraphrased speech. Rush was counting dots on a map or some kind of data sheet, reflecting a poll. "Friends, you see, there are… let me count… four, five… ten, eleven… seventeen, eighteen, um, nineteen Republican dots — blue dots. And only six red dots — Democrat dots. This is based on a Wall Street Journal poll, not on some liberal rag. So as you can see, the liberal media are … note my usage of the correct verbal number … are lying about how superior the Democrat Party is in the… what? "Do what? Just second. My producer is… Oh, crap, I keep forgetting these stupid colors are backwards. How is anybody supposed to keep that straight? Red and blue… the _Democrats_ should be red. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows this. Red has traditionally been the color of communism. Think ‘Red China’. Think ‘Red Square’ in the former Soviet Union. It’s natural to think of Democrats as red. "Republicans should be blue. As in ‘true blue’. As in ‘royal blue’. It’s a patriotic color as in ‘Off we go, into the wild blue yonder.’ Red should be the Democrat color, and blue should be the Republican color. The present scheme was obviously conceived by the liberal media in an attempt to confuse the electorate. They’ll do anything to win, folks, and this is just further proof of that. "[…a moment of dead air…] “I can’t even remember the point I was trying to make. If they can addle me, friends, with my superior intellect, rest assured they can addle you. Let’s see here… Oh, here’s an item! Two people got in a knife fight over Hillary versus Obama! A Hillary supporter stabbed an Obama supporter…” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/2 "2008-02-26T12:36:14Z")
I used to like Rush. Say what you will about his politics, he was fun to listen to. Now he is George-Carlin-style bitter. Rush has jumped the shark. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/3 "2008-02-26T12:36:37Z")
How’s his hearing been lately? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/4 "2008-02-26T13:14:18Z")
Oh, this is almost too good to be true. Is there any chance of a recording or official transcript? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/5 "2008-02-26T13:20:20Z")
He’s right, though. Well, he starts off being right; he’s wrong about why it is the way it is now. Almost everywhere else, blue means conservative, red liberal. And in fact, that used to be (generally, but not universally) the case in the USA; it’s only in the last ten or twelve years that the colors switched. When Reagan won almost the whole country in 1984, it was called “the sea of blue” or “the blue wave” during live coverage of the election results. As recently as 1992, blue was the color commonly assigned to Republicans, red to Democrats. The 2000 election was the first time red became solidly attached to the Republicans and blue to the Democrats. That said, as I mentioned, Limbaugh is wrong (surprise!) about why it’s now red for Republican and blue for Democrat; it’s that way because the Bush and Gore campaigns primarily used those colors in their 2000 Presidential runs. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/6 "2008-02-26T13:21:49Z")
I seem to remember the colors (red and blue) being switched in alternate elections, in times past. When did they get codified in place the way they are now? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/7 "2008-02-26T13:27:18Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] And in fact, that used to be (generally, but not universally) the case in the USA; it’s only in the last ten or twelve years that the colors switched. When Reagan won almost the whole country in 1984, it was called “the sea of blue” or “the blue wave” during live coverage of the election results. As recently as 1992, blue was the color commonly assigned to Republicans, red to Democrats. The 2000 election was the first time red became solidly attached to the Republicans and blue to the Democrats. [/QUOTE] Well, in the US, blue was usually used for the incumbent party, and red for the challenging party. So, Reagan winning in '84 was a “sea of blue” because he was the sitting president. Likewise, in 2000, Gore was blue because the Democrats were in control of the presidency during the election. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/8 "2008-02-26T13:29:14Z")
Captain Amazing explained it better and more correctly while I was typing my reply. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/9 "2008-02-26T13:37:49Z")
IIRC, it used to be that blue was used for the incumbent party and red for the challengers. (I can’t seem to find a cite for that, though.) It got stuck where it is in 2000, when pundits tried to draw a thick line between those states who voted for Bush and those who voted for Gore and used the red vs. blue divide as shorthand. As I recall, it was mostly right-leaning pundits who pushed the meme out there by showing the map of the 2000 election results by county, which that year was overwhelmingly red (except for blue pockets where all the people are). That image and color scheme stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/10 "2008-02-26T13:44:55Z")
The [Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/2007/06/07/blue-state-red-state/) discusses the red/blue thing. The key part of the linked article is: > [@The Word Detective](#): > > The use of “red” and “blue” as color codes on maps of electoral results actually dates back to at least 1908, when the Washington Post printed a special supplement in which Republican states were colored red and Democratic blue. The colors were apparently arbitrarily assigned in that case, although in later years both parties strove to claim blue (as in “true blue Americans”) and avoid red, with its connotations of radicalism. > > Finally, in 1976, the TV networks agreed to a formula to avoid any implication of favoritism in color selections. The color of the incumbent party, initially set as blue for Gerald Ford’s Republican ticket in that year, would flip every four years. Consequently, a successful challenger runs again in four years, as the incumbent, under the same color. So in 1992, the challenger Clinton was red on the maps, and in 1996, incumbent Clinton was also red. Challenger Bush, red in 2000, was red again as an incumbent in 2004. But perhaps because the pundits decreed 2000 to be a watershed election, the “red/blue” divide has assumed a broader political significance (at least to pundits), and although the formula dictates that the Republicans should be carrying the blue flag in 2008, it will be interesting to see how the networks color their maps And yes, Limbaugh is a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/11 "2008-02-26T15:06:24Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] How’s his hearing been lately? 😃 [/QUOTE] Gah. What an embarrasing typo. Sorry about that. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/12 "2008-02-26T15:11:50Z")
Screw red AND blue. Of the three colors on the flag, I would have thought the Republicans would prefer to see their country all White. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/13 "2008-02-26T15:14:19Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Oh, here’s an item! Two people got in a knife fight over Hillary versus Obama! A Hillary supporter stabbed an Obama supporter…" [/QUOTE] The Hillary supporter was a Republican! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/14 "2008-02-26T15:41:19Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] The Hillary supporter was a Republican! :eek: [/QUOTE] Nah, Republicans don’t stab. They shoot you. I feel blue for the Pubs fits nicely- as in the blue hair of the old people in Lincolns who vote Republican, or the blue lips of people dying of pneumonia because they can’t afford private health insurance… ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/15 "2008-02-26T15:50:24Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Nah, Republicans don’t stab. They shoot you. [/QUOTE] Well, they hire someone else to shoot you. Create jobs, spur the economy, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/16 "2008-02-26T15:53:22Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Nah, Republicans don’t stab. They shoot you. [/QUOTE] No, really: [What’s more, 28-year-old Jose Ortiz, who’s charged with felony assault, is a registered Republican.](http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2008/02/25/breaking_news/breaking850.txt) ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/17 "2008-02-26T16:19:25Z")
As in \*royal \* blue? Methinks Mr. Limbaugh may have rather missed the point of the, you know, _country_, if he considers “royal blue” a good thing to be. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/18 "2008-02-26T16:26:14Z")
Also, Red Square was called that way before Karl Marx ever even thought of being born. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/19 "2008-02-26T16:26:36Z")
Well, to be fair, I was, um, liberally paraphrasing. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/20 "2008-02-26T16:29:08Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] As in \*royal \* blue? Methinks Mr. Limbaugh may have rather missed the point of the, you know, _country_, if he considers “royal blue” a good thing to be. [/QUOTE] No, no, that’s just a slight residual carryover from his days as a flunkie for the Kansas City Royals baseball team. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208.md?page=2)