> Well, « blue » as a political signifier very much started on the left, being associated to American and French Republicans (in the true sense of the word, not

> Well, « blue » as a political signifier very much started on the left, being associated to American and French Republicans (in the true sense of the word, not the GOP). The right wing being « white », ie. monarchist. Coincidentally that meaning also found posterity in the Russian Revolution as the colour of the Tsarist regime also happened to be white (possibly in imitation of the French, but religious reasons also play into it). How do you figure this? The association of left with red, and blue with right, dates from the French revolution, as the three estates of French society each had a color: the commoners had red, and the nobility had blue. The monarchists at the times of the French revolution always flew blue, and the republicans that wished to abolish it flew red. > As far as I'm aware, the US under a « swap » of sorts as the Northern and Southern wings of the Democratic and Republican parties broke up and reorganized. That is not the origin of the colors in U.S.A. politics; the origin is that during the Bush v. Gore election, most major U.S.A. news stations, either by coincidence of agreement, congruated on coloring the Republican Party with red, and the Democrat Party with blue, and it remained so ever thereafter. That they chose to do so, to me, indicates a certain ignorance of global politics,̧ as nearly every capitalist party internationally incorporates a great deal of blue in it's designs, and every socialist party a great deal of red.