Where I come from "Blue" means "conservative" and "Red" is usually some form of collectivist philosophy, such as Socialism or Communism. This colour scheme is true for most of the world.
Of course, the US in its arse backwards way has these reversed. Although, I am not really sure what US parties actually stand for since it appears to be the party of the rich and powerful v. the party of the rich and powerful (republicrats and Demicans). In fact, the parties are terrible at making any real political stands in such topics as gun control, health care, the environment, transportation, education, and pretty much everything in general. That is a major reason nothing seems to get done in this country, other than making a show of electioneering. We have "wedge issues" such as gun control and abortion, which are really non-issues since gun control and abortion should exist and shouldn't be any sort of "wedge".
Actually, I don't understand the progun crowd's disliking abortion since the children aren't alive anyway. They haven't been born, which means that life is speculative. On the other hand, the gun crowd sees no problem in the death toll in the USA. Perhaps, if we ensured that wanted children came into the world, we wouldn't have an issue with crime.
But the ultimate bottom line is the public welfare, which I see neither US party as being very interested in promoting. In fact, I am not very sure of what exactly the US parties are interested in promoting other than havoc.
