Putting the "red" in "red state"

What the GOP and the CPSU have in common.

As a Canadian I’m used to the color red representing the center-left party, and the color blue representing the right-of-center party. In many other countries red is synonymous with socialist and communist parties. So I’ve always found it kind of weird that the opposite is true in the United States: red is so associated with the right-wing Republicans, and blue with the left-ish Democrats, that parts of the country dominated by one party are called “red states” or “blue states.”

It feels like it should be the other way around. Thanks for nothing, New York Times.

In 1976, NBC debuted its first election map on the air, with bulbs that turned red for Carter-won states (Democratic), and blue for Ford (Republican). This original color scheme was based on Great Britain's political system, which used red to denote the more liberal party. However, other stations used different colors and designations for a variety of ideological and aesthetic reasons, which often differed from person to per…