Red states and blue states
Polarization
Feelings of cultural and political polarization between red and blue states, which have gained increased media attention since the 2004 election, have led to increased mutual feelings of alienation and enmity. The polarization has been present for only three close elections (2000, 2004 and 2016). In the 1996 election, 31 U.S. states were "blue" (i.e. they voted for Democrat Bill Clinton) and 19 "red" (i.e. they voted for Republican Bob Dole), though at the time the current color scheme was not as universal as today). One trend that has been true for several election cycles is that states that vote Republican tend to be more rural and more sparsely populated (thus having fewer electoral votes) than states that vote Democratic.
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