The blue/red meme -- which got its start with USA Today's county-by-county 2000 election results map -- has really taken off since this year's election. It has become a shorthand for describing people whose values track mostly with the Democrats (blue) or with the Republicans (red). In a way, this is widening even further the cultural gulf between the "two Americas".
A new website, Choose the Blue, is encouraging "blues" to spend their money only on businesses, products and services offered by companies who give more money to the Democrats than to the GOP.
To help the earnest liberal in his or her quest, Choose the Blue provides a well-organized list of corporations and federal data on the giving habits of their political action committees and employees.
Happily, this list also serves as a useful guide to help "reds" make their spending decisions.
In my opinion, care should be taken regarding companies that split their contributions evenly (or even 60-40). In many of these cases, I suspect the companies' contributions are more pragmatic than ideological. In other words, they're paying "protection" money.
That said, there is plenty of useful information to be gained from the data.
Arby's and Sonic - 100% Dem
Most restaurant chains - Significantly GOP
Most grocery store chains - Significantly GOP
News Corp (parent of Fox News) - 61% Dem
Fox News itself - 67% GOP (although the actual amounts are quite small)
Fox Kids - 98% Dem
HarperCollins (Limbaugh's publisher) - 100% Dem
...and much, much more...
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