"Red States" versus "Blue States"

David N. Mayer writes that it's the networks that gave us these colors:

...in their coverage of the 2000 election, in which the states carried by Bush were colored red while the states carried by Gore were colored blue. I noted that the new color coding switched the traditional use of blue for states carried by Republicans and red for states carried by Democrats – a use that was long-standing (blue for Republican and red for Democrat was the general rule as far back as I can remember – and I've been watching network coverage of presidential election returns since 1964). The traditional color-coding also was more logical, given that red is a color most associated with Communism, and that the Democrats' party is the one most obviously socialistic in America today.

Also a tidbit about "fine, centuries-old word[s], rooted in the Anglo-Saxon origins of the English language – and often the most appropriate word[s] one can use to fully express oneself."