Orange Curtain

Flags of the two counties

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. "Orange Curtain". A Way with Words. April 1, 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
4. Cotter, Colleen (2001). USA Phrasebook: Understanding Americans & Their Culture. Hawthorn, Vic., Australia: Lonely Planet Publications. p. 199. ISBN 1-86450-182-0.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Keith, Tamara (November 20, 2018). "Democrats Demolish The 'Orange Curtain' In Orange County". NPR. Retrieved September 2, 2020.