Idiom: Red, White and Blue

[bmo]

Is Red, white and blue an idiom? What does it mean in the title of these articles?


Red, Black and Blue

It's not just immigrants and progressives who are noticing that something is very wrong with the USA PATRIOT ACT. From the New York Times Monday: "A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations involving enforcement of the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act. ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Red, Black and Blue

Hours after the 2004 election came to an emotional end midday Wednesday, campaign placards still littered the landscape like muskets discarded on a battlefield. They hinted of passions still not cooled, scores unsettled.
On a winding road in the Maryland suburb of Bethesda, an official Bush-Cheney sign was shadowed on a neighbor's lawn by a hand-scrawled one supporting Kerry. "We love our neighbors," the Kerry sign explained, "but not their politics."
Across the great divide of the red and the blue, the polarized presidential race left Americans conflicted over their differences and uncertain about how to begin the healing.

Thanks.

BMO

[Casiopea]

red, white and blue refers to the American flag, whereas red, black and blue refers to blood (red) and bruises (black and blue).