The Orange Curtain is a local term for the border between Orange County and Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California.[1] It is a sometimes derogatory, sometimes lighthearted term that is used to describe Orange County's more conservative and suburban population as compared to the more liberal and urban population of Los Angeles.[2][3][4]
The phrase is a wordplay on the so-called Iron Curtain, which separated communist and capitalist Europe.[5]
According to Colleen Cotter, "Because [Orange County] has a reputation for political conservatism, people from Northern California especially worry about what happens 'Behind the Orange Curtain'."[4]
The Orange Curtain began from the fact that between 1890 and 1950, Orange County was wholly white and "the region's predominately Irish settling also embraced an ideology of small government.[6]
Following the 2018 midterm elections, in which liberal Democrats were elected to all seven congressional seats in Orange County, comments arose about the so-called collapse of the Orange Curtain. A Republican Party political consultant said, "Orange County was different. It was, as we called it, 'the orange curtain' and it has now fallen."[7]
References
edit- ^ Dickson, Paul (2006). Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe (Revised ed.). HarperCollins. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-06-088164-1. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
The term "Orange Curtain" is being used to mark those characteristics, real or imagined, that differentiate Orange County from Los Angeles and the rest of California.
- ^ Overley, Jeff (January 4, 2008). "Are we on TV too much?". Orange County Register. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
- ^ "Orange Curtain". A Way with Words. April 1, 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
- ^ a b Cotter, Colleen (2001). USA Phrasebook: Understanding Americans & Their Culture. Hawthorn, Vic., Australia: Lonely Planet Publications. p. 199. ISBN 1-86450-182-0.
- ^ Lefurgy, Jennifer; Lang, Robert (2007). Boomburbs: the rise of America's accidental cities. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8157-5114-4.
- ^ Aguilar-San Juan, Karin (2009). Little Saigons: staying Vietnamese in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-8166-5486-4.
John Birch-style ideology.
- ^ Keith, Tamara (November 20, 2018). "Democrats Demolish The 'Orange Curtain' In Orange County". NPR. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
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