Reds (Puzzle No. 3,332)

Looks like the theme for the month is avoiding the trite and overused.  Hot and Trazom talked about single letter clue components in this week’s Word Salad as well as the previous installment, and puzzle 3,331 gave us a simple color theme.  That got me thinking about REDS, which often gets clued as a political reference.  How about some alternatives?

• Carmine and Rose
• Bench and Morgan
• Republicans 

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/180810/puzzle-no-3332

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Hard.  A lot harder than the previous puzzle, but that one drew the gripes. 

Hozom’s comment: “In Brief,” in which Hot and Trazom admit their use of clichéd single letters. Being a music person, Trazom frequently thinks “soft” and “loud” for P and F, which also conveniently make for double letters too.  If you’re a novice, read the whole thing for a catalog of single letters.  If you’re an aficionado, read it for some notes on how Frank Lewis clues single letters.

Cluing challenge: INITIALS