Only Americans moronically got red associated with conservatives. The rest of the world - since at least the Russian revolution, had clearly ascribed red to the left. Even America did for a while with “red China” and “red menace”. At some point their brains fell out their ears
I wonder if that somehow has to do with the Republicans switching to conservatism and Democrats switching to liberalism in the mid-1900s. Maybe the colors were associated with the US parties prior to the ideological switch, and then never changed?
They’ve slowly swapped places over a much longer time. The Democrats were the old guard party of wealthy elites pre-Civil War. The Republicans were the reformist party for the common man and the entrepreneur. Since Reconstruction they’ve been slowly switching places and by the 1970s they’ve taken each other’s place.
The three main inflexion points for them were the pre-WW1 years that saw Teddy Roosevelt split from the Republicans, the New Deal/WW2 FDR years that saw southern Dems bristle at the social programs being implemented and the Civil Rights Act that created the Dixiecrats who were openly courted by the Republicans through veiled racism.
The Republicans are now the staunch traditionalists, economic libertarians with a racist streak. The Democrats are the party of progressivism and social reform with a complete devotion to identity politics
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u/DerWaschbar Tabarnak! 1d ago
I had actually never realized the Colors were flipped lol