Two tiresome and misleading designations that have been driven into the ground by the media over the last 8 years. The striking electoral patterns of 2000/2004 already seem like a transient phenomenon created by an odd series of events: the unusually polarizing presidencies of Clinton and Bush Jr., uneven immigration patterns, the prosperity of the 90s, and war hysteria. As these factors decline in relevance, traditional political issues and electoral patterns are re-emerging, and the simplistic, over-hyped red/blue divisions are fading away.
