The Overton Window is the range of things that constituents are willing to accept and consider. These ideas are what politicians use to run a successful campaign. This window shifts over time, depending on the trends of social thought and norms.
With the political landscape shifting in sometimes startling ways, the Overton Window theory is becoming more and more relevant. Things that were once just an obscure idea have started to gain broader relevance.
The Overton Window has become a useful tool to keep up with what's going on in the world around us. Policies that were once dismissed for being too extreme, like "Medicare for all", a 70 % top tax rate, sweeping action on climate change or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are now being discussed in mainstream political circles.
But the window is a description, not a tactic for achieving political power. Shifting it doesn't mean proposing extreme ideas to make somewhat less extreme ideas seem more reasonable. Overton came up with the theory to explain that the key shifts begin with the public, and political organizations is not to get politicians to support policies outside the window, but to convince voters that policies outside the window should be in it. If they are successful, an idea that was previously thought of as unthinkable can become so inevitable that it is hard to believe it was ever otherwise.
With the political landscape shifting in sometimes startling ways, the Overton Window theory is becoming more and more relevant. Things that were once just an obscure idea have started to gain broader relevance.
The Overton Window has become a useful tool to keep up with what's going on in the world around us. Policies that were once dismissed for being too extreme, like "Medicare for all", a 70 % top tax rate, sweeping action on climate change or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are now being discussed in mainstream political circles.
But the window is a description, not a tactic for achieving political power. Shifting it doesn't mean proposing extreme ideas to make somewhat less extreme ideas seem more reasonable. Overton came up with the theory to explain that the key shifts begin with the public, and political organizations is not to get politicians to support policies outside the window, but to convince voters that policies outside the window should be in it. If they are successful, an idea that was previously thought of as unthinkable can become so inevitable that it is hard to believe it was ever otherwise.
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