On Saturday, I noticed a tweet from Michael Gove. He is the British writer and politician who has held three cabinet positions. Currently, he is the minister for environment, food, and rural affairs. His tweet was a simple exclamation: “Holy cow!” He was retweeting a tweet from Richard Benyon, the member of parliament from Newbury, Berkshire. Newbury is the home of the Berkshire Show, an agricultural fair. The MP tweeted a photo of a prize-winning cow — who sported a ribbon saying “1st.” The ribbon was red.
What the . . .?
Is that another difference between us cousins? Today on the homepage, I have a journal from the New York State Fair. One of my photos shows Hazel, a great hog, sleeping it off (as hogs are wont to do). On her cage is a red ribbon, indicating that she has won second place. I comment, “She doesn’t seem too upset not to have won first.”
Many times over the years, I have complained that, in America, left-leaning politics and the Democratic party became “blue” while right-leaning politics and the Republican party became “red.” That is bassackwards. For eons, blue has been the color of conservatism, and red the color of the Left. As far as I’m aware, all other countries still have it right. That includes Britain, where Conservative politicians sport blue ribbons, and Labour politicians red (as depicted above).
Do you recall that Michael Novak, the late American political philosopher, a conservative, or classical liberal, advocated what he called blue environmentalism? He was against green and red — those radicalisms. If you care about the environment, he wrote, your color should be blue. “First of all, over two-thirds of the planet’s surface is blue, and represents a major environmental challenge: Even with all that water, over a billion people still lack clean water to drink. Second, blue has a political meaning” — as the color of “liberty, personal initiative, and enterprise.”
I suppose the blue/red thing is a lost cause in America. But I still reserve the right to complain, once a year or so.