March 11, 2006
Look at the Colors Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 07:00 AM EST The best thing that came out of the 2000 and 2004 elections was the establishment of “red” and “blue” as approximate synonyms for “conservative” and “liberal.” A color system for politics is something our nation has always lacked, and its acceptance is a sign of a mature political system. The English, for example, have used colors to indicate political allegiance at least since the War of the Roses; Dickens satirized this tendency with his chapter on the Blues and the Buffs in The Pickwick Papers. The advantage of color terms is that they are completely, unmistakably arbitrary. To be sure, most of us understand that “liberal” and “conservative” are mere labels, not meant to be taken literally any more than we would expect a person named Smith to be handy with tools. But not everyone grasps this rudimentary point, so at some point in any political debate, a conservative is sure to say, “I’m the true liberal because I’m in favor of freedom,” or a liberal will say, “I’m the conservative because I’m sticking with what’s tried and true.” (Adding to the confusion, in some countries, particularly the former Communist bloc, “liberals” are those who favor free markets while “conservatives” want to retain state control.) “Left” and “right” are just as arbitrary as “red” and “blue,” but in American parlance they have taken on a strong connotation of extremism. When someone says “left” or “right” in a political context, the listener tends to mentally supply “-wing” rather than “-of-center.” The same thing may happen with “red” and “blue” in time, though the lack of a convenient linear scale for in-between cases may work against this. In America most people are happy to think of themselves as centrists, but who wants to be purple? Terms like “center-right” or “to the left of Bill Clinton” are much more easily grasped than “gentian violet with a hint of rose pink” or “PMS 2582” (unless you happen to be an art director). Widespread adoption of “red” and “blue” will not, by itself, suddenly cause America’s political commentators to start making sense. But at least it will deprive them of one easy way to degenerate into linguistic quibbles instead of framing their arguments on the merits.
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