Isn't american party colors backwards compared to most western countries?
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2026
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Yeah, it's a whole thing about neither party wanting to be red during the cold war so news outlets would randomize it until the 2000 election when cable news was involved. People watched a highly contested election 24 hours a day for weeks and just got used to thinking of red as Republican and blue as Democrat. It stuck ever since.
Yes. This thread is pretty baffling to me to say the least. I wonder if OP is aware there‘s a whole world out there.
Because there is only oil to steal and other governments to topple outside of america
Yep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_colour
Parties in different countries with similar ideologies sometimes use similar colours. As an example, the colour red symbolizes ideologies further to the left of the political spectrum, sometimes referred to as left-wing politics. In some countries this has also been associated with Communism (leading to the use of such terms as "Red Army" and "Red Scare"). The colour blue is often used for conservatism, politics that lie further to the right of the political spectrum, and thus referred to as "right of centre" or "right wing" politics. In more recent years, the colour yellow has been commonly associated with liberalism and right-libertarianism, while the colour green has an association with Green politics so-named after the ideology's choice of that colour and concern with environmental issues, also commonly described as being green.[2][3]
Makes sense, America is pretty backwards compared to most western countries, so might as well flip the colors
Alternative title: USians use different colours than the rest of the world for political parties.
Y'all afraid of commies but you've never seen the USSR flag?
But republicans use American Red.
*Coca cola red
Symbolises the blood of immigrants and trans folk (probably).
Yes, and it's the US that is unusual. Red is the historical color of social-democratic, socialist and communist parties.
There is a video explaining the history of US party colors here: https://youtu.be/lgz3p4cEXZU
America does everything back-assward. Red is the color of labor and socialism, historically.
The color assignments happened by chance. The networks used to arbitrarily choose red or blue or even some other color for each party to show them on the maps, and one network might use different colors than another. Then one year (2000), a year that they were showing R's as red and D's as blue, the colors stuck and stayed that way--probably because the counting went on for so long that year.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-became-red-democrats-became-blue-104176297/
There are plenty of articles online about the subject. I'm old so I remember it myself.
So they are really that retarded then huh? I believed that they were the right colours until the democrats became the "progressive" and the republicans went full conservative. Because of that switch it reversed the traditional colours of left and right.
And in Australia, the Liberals are the Conservatives.
Because they're upside down?
This seems like it should be expected.
In the Netherlands too, and their colour is orange (VVD).
Liberally Conservative and Conservatively Conservative
I was surprised by this, too, moving to New Zealand. Down here National (the ~~center~~ centre-right party) is a light blue color, while Labour is a red-orange. But then there's ACT (further right than National), which uses a pink color, and NZ First (even further right than ACT), which uses a dark blue color.
Incidentally, it's an election year here, too; and from what I've gathered, NZ First (the furthest-right of the major parties in New Zealand) somehow manages to still be further left than American Republicans on most issues. National is further left than American Democrats.
Americas political parties have flipped and flopped and swapped multiple times.
I disagree that US colors are wrong or that we misapply "liberal". The DNC is pro-corporate and dig their heels in on any meaningful reforms for healthcare, workers rights, etc. They correlate to other liberal parties.
The problem is that the only other party of relevance is far right, so we treat the liberals as "left" by comparison. They have some progressives because there is nowhere else to go and have a reasonable chance to get elected or even be on the ballot above the local level.
It's true that the history of the color distinction only goes back to 2000, and the people that made the choice were unlikely to think about it this way, but I think at least the blue is appropriate.
That's also why DSA is red.
In summary, just Overton Window things.
The US didn't use colours for political leanings until 2000 when this whole blue, red, and purple terminology started in earnest. And using red for the conservative side is certainly unique.
Red has traditionally been the colour of socialism/social democrats. All the other colour assignments tend to vary by country. But blue or black or thereabouts tends to be conservative. Green introduced itself in the 70s.
Canada is just normal in terms of "political colours."
does canada also have only two parties? well, RIP
We have orange for the NDP, green for the Green, in Quebec they have a color for the Bloc Quebecois but I'm not sure what it is.
Unfortunately I know too well the colors of the Cons because our former idiot of a premier gave up two years of power to call an early election and yesterday broke 100 years record by having the conservatives take BC Canada back.
they have a color for the Bloc Quebecois
It's light blue.
Thanks, great user name BTW.
I dunno, seems fitting to me.
Democrats are a Conservative blue.
Republicans are a Nazi red.
In America, the conservative party is red and the liberal is blue
I REMEMBER THE BEFORE TIMES! The long long ago! When not all was as it is today...
Red is the color of blood, and thus is the color of hard labor. America is the one who has it backwards.
The Liberals are hardly a labour party, I'd say by this metric both of them are backwards.
I'm talking from a more historical context rather than from a modern context. There are not too many actually pro-worker parties in the global north these days.
Ours weren't set until 1992, I think. Blue used to mean incumbent and red was for the challenger.(I may have that backwards.)
IIRC a US journalist invented it for the US. Republicans Red because they both start with R.
Ahh. Hence why the Bdemocrats are blue.
Denimocrats. Levi’s blue, bruh!
Could have beeen diolet.
In Quebec, almost all parties are shades of blue…
Not a coincidence.
Except the federal liberals also serve Quebec. Do they remember?
Oh dear
Although a Conservative in Canada wouldn't be a Conservative in the US. In Canada they support abortion, socialized medicine and same sex marriages.
Provincially the Conservatives are campaigning on privatizing healthcare. They also do not whip votes on abortion rights, and routinely put forward bills to ban it. Some Conservative party members literally met with the U.S admin to ask for support in seceding from Canada.
It may have once been true that a Canadian Conservative would be closer to the Democratic party, but the landscape is changing.
I was going by the National party. Their official stance is that they support abortion. I'm sure there's a wide variety of support among members. There must be a lot of support for it as it's in their platform.
Tell the Canadians to unswap them and use the right colors