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Jack comments on The Red Bias - Less Wrong
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The GOP has only been identified as "red" since 2000. Before 2000, the GOP and Democrats alternated colors on electoral maps every 4 years.
I suspect that the 2000 color assignment stuck because Tim Russert's electoral maps were such a cultural touchstone from that year. It was after 2000 that a series of books emphasizing the red state/blue state cultural divide started appearing.
Also, the electoral map you show makes the GOP look "stronger" mainly because the area of the red states happens to be larger than the more densely populated blue states.
This is true. The next step would be seeing if there was a change in party image after this happened that didn't have another cause. I suspect identifying any color biasing effect will be impossible. The other relevant variables (9/11, the War on Terror, Iraq, past military interventions etc.) are too unstable and we don't know when the identification of the GOP with the color red sunk in.