# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/41 "2008-02-27T13:47:23Z")
And let’s not forget the rocket’s red glare. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/42 "2008-02-27T14:56:17Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] And let’s not forget the rocket’s red glare. [/QUOTE] Especially given their lead-in to bombs bursting in air – quite apropos, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/43 "2008-02-27T18:51:12Z")
This is intriguing. Here blue is normally associated with conservatism and red with socialism, while liberalism has used yellow, and more recently, a sort of yellow-orange. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/44 "2008-02-27T21:20:50Z")
In the U.S., libertarianism (what you call “liberal,” I guess – to us, “liberal” means labor/social democracy), is also associated with yellow. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/45 "2008-02-27T21:32:18Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] 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. [/QUOTE] I completely agree. He did (does?) one of the best Bill Clinton imitations I’ve ever heard - he didn’t sound too much like the man, but the personality he was expressing was spot-on to what I imagined Bill Clinton to be like with a beer or three in him. I stopped listening during the 2000 recount issue. I stopped taking him seriously 4, 5, 6 years earlier when he decided that he could comment on movies without having bothered to see them. Not like “I’ve heard that film X is a liberal mouthpiece” but stuff like “In Independence Day the film actually had Jeff Goldblum go and rescue a homeless man prior to fleeing the city.” Yeah, I know: small potatos. But as [Vincent Vega](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/) said about Europe: “It’s the little things.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/46 "2008-02-27T21:49:40Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] In the U.S., libertarianism ( **what you call “liberal,” I guess – to us, “liberal” means labor/social democracy** ), is also associated with yellow. [/QUOTE] Not to all of us. 😉😛 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/47 "2008-02-27T22:01:50Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] “Red has traditionally been the color of communism.” [/QUOTE] Red is one of the three colors of the American flag, Rush! Well … you can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/48 "2008-02-27T23:15:17Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Not to all of us. 😉😛 [/QUOTE] To me, you’ll always be a one-man labor/social democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/49 "2008-02-28T02:36:12Z")
How about we just change the colors to beige and ecru? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/50 "2008-02-28T02:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=Baine] How about we just change the colors to beige and ecru? [/QUOTE] Perfect. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/51 "2008-02-28T07:37:03Z")
[QUOTE=Baine] How about we just change the colors to beige and ecru? [/QUOTE] Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I watched the 1988 US election returns on a black-and-white TV, and the only network we could get in clearly with our stylish aluminum-foil tipped rabbit ears used a shade of blue and a shade of red that turned into, for all practical purposes, identical shades of grey. My roommates and I were trying to see any difference so we could try to figure out which way our home state of Pennsylvania had gone. As the evening wore on, they must have gotten a lot of complaints about it, because when the map came up the anchor began to say “For the benefit of those of you watching on black-and-white screens, the states we’re calling for Bush are going to flash for a few seconds starting now.” Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/52 "2008-02-28T08:17:51Z")
[QUOTE=XWalrus2] Oh, this is almost too good to be true. Is there any chance of a recording or official transcript? [/QUOTE] Here’s something from Limbaugh’s Web site that is similar to what the OP posted, although there’s no mention of any confusion about which dots represent whom, no accusing the liberal media of anything, no reference to his superior intellect, and no desperate changing of the subject. In short, it’s not that similar to what the OP posted. [QUOTE=Rush Limbaugh] Now, I have a list of the states that are expecting budget shortfalls, and the blue dots are in Democrat states; the red dots for some reason, they’ve assigned red dots to the Republican – well, that makes sense. Red and blue. See, I keep thinking the Democrats ought to be red. I never understood this red and blue. The Democrats are red. Official color, communist flag, all that, Soviet Union flag, the Cuban flag. At any rate, when you count – let me just count these blue dots here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Why, can that possibly be? Yeah. Got to 20 here, we don’t have all 25 on the chart. So out of 20 of these states with projected gaps, 16 of them are Democrat run. [/QUOTE] [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site\_022508/content/01125113.guest.html](http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_022508/content/01125113.guest.html) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/53 "2008-02-28T17:42:21Z")
Yeah, mine was the interstitial version. The key to meaning is in the penumbra. In retrospect, I’m surprised I subconsciously associated all that other stuff with it. But the other stuff is just regular Rush. Stuff he says all the time anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/54 "2008-02-28T17:51:38Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] Red is one of the three colors of the American flag, Rush! Well … you can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America! [/QUOTE] ::marches out, [humming the national anthem](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8uCS9wcyQ4):: ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/55 "2008-02-29T00:07:17Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Yeah, mine was the interstitial version. The key to meaning is in the penumbra. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure what that means, but I have a feeling I’ll be using it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/56 "2008-02-29T01:00:36Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] His audience seems to be the loyal 30% who would vote Republican even if Bush, McCain, and Cheney were videotaped in a gay 3-way. [/QUOTE] I, on the other hand, will vote Republican **only** if this happens! ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/57 "2008-02-29T02:01:46Z")
I find it odd (as a foreigner) that your parties don’t / didn’t have self-selected colours strongly associated with them – here the different parties have their colours on banners and rosettes, their logos are in their colours, and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/58 "2008-02-29T02:56:28Z")
[QUOTE=Apollyon] I find it odd (as a foreigner) that your parties don’t / didn’t have self-selected colours strongly associated with them – here the different parties have their colours on banners and rosettes, their logos are in their colours, and so forth. [/QUOTE] Did they have Garanimals in New Zealand? Those were kids clothes where each one had a tag with an animal on it, and if you matched the animals then the clothes would match. Our political parties are like that. If you need to know what your opinions should be on abortion, teaching evolution, health-care reform, and waterboarding, just match up the elephants and you’re good to go. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/59 "2008-02-29T03:23:24Z")
Tsk. He said _PARTIES_, not _PANTIES_! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208/60 "2008-02-29T03:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=Apollyon] I find it odd (as a foreigner) that your parties don’t / didn’t have self-selected colours strongly associated with them – here the different parties have their colours on banners and rosettes, their logos are in their colours, and so forth. [/QUOTE] To a large extent, an American political party does not want to be seen as explicitly choosing “party colors” that are anything other than the national colors, for fear of being seen as being insufficiently patriotic. They do use logos and other symbols, but when it comes to colors, the Democrats and Republicans will not claim anything other than the red-white-and-blue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-wants-to-swap-d-r-colors-or-at-least-change-the-subject/439208.md?page=4)