[Sca-cooks] OT: GoTV

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 6, 2008, at 5:17 AM, Margaret Rendell wrote:

> Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> Selene replied to me with:
>>
>> <<<
>> Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> > Where did this blue state-red state come from?
>>
>> Curiously, from television coverage of national elections.  It's not
>> like there was a great agreement amongst the TV networks, it just  
>> kind
>> of evolved as a convention. >>>
>>
>> Thank you. I guess this happened after color television became  
>> common.  But why red and blue? And why blue for the Democrats and  
>> red for the Republicans?  It would have been rather confusing if  
>> different stations/newspapers were using the same color for  
>> different parties.
>
> As it is, it certainly confused the Aussies who were watching in  
> with interest - in our elections blue is the conservative/right-wing  
> party* and red the more leftish party, so the colours are reversed...

That's because you're seeing them upside-down, presumably ;-)

> Margaret/Emma
>
> * I've left out the party names due to the confusion generally  
> engendered by the fact that our conservative party is called the  
> Liberal Party...

But not entirely unprecedented as a source of confusion, such as when  
the National Socialist German Workers Party were the deadly enemies of  
the Communist Party, or the polar ideological shift between the  
Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. at approximately the  
turn of the 20th century. Stuff happens...

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter