{"id":33913,"date":"2015-12-13T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=33913"},"modified":"2015-12-10T17:30:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T22:30:43","slug":"the-overton-window-meets-the-donald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/12\/13\/the-overton-window-meets-the-donald\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Overton Window” meets “The Donald”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David French<\/a> first introduces the political notion of the Overton Window and then describes the impact of Donald Trump on that window:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a term you need to know \u2014 the \u201cOverton Window<\/a>.\u201d Developed by the late Joseph Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the \u201cwindow\u201d refers to the range of acceptable political discourse on any given topic. As the Mackinac Center explains, \u201cthe \u2018window\u2019 of politically acceptable options is primarily defined not by what politicians prefer, but rather by what they believe they can support and still win re-election.\u201d The key to shifting policy lies not so much in changing politicians but in changing the terms of the debate. In other words, \u201cThe window shifts to include different policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change in the society that elects them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Left \u2014 dominating the media, the academy, and pop culture \u2014 is unmatched at moving the Overton Window. Consider gay marriage, a subject once so far outside the mainstream that less than 20 years ago, Republicans and Democrats united to pass the Defense of Marriage Act to define marriage under federal law as the union of one man and one woman. Now? That view is such an anathema that it\u2019s difficult to get \u2014 or retain \u2014 a job in entire sectors of the economy if you openly hold to the traditionalist position on marriage.<\/p>\n

The Overton Window moved even faster on transgender rights. Ten years ago the notion that a man with emotional problems and breast implants could be named \u201cWoman of the Year<\/a>\u201d was unthinkable. Now, in some quarters it\u2019s just as unthinkable to refer to Bruce Jenner \u2014 Bruce Jenner! \u2014 as a man.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Then along came Donald Trump. On key issues, he didn\u2019t just move the Overton Window, he smashed it, scattered the shards, and rolled over them with a steamroller. On issues like immigration, national security, and even the manner of political debate itself, there\u2019s no window left. Registration of Muslims? On the table. Bans on Muslims entering the country? On the table. Mass deportation? On the table. Walling off our southern border at Mexico\u2019s expense? On the table. The current GOP front-runner is advocating policies that represent the mirror-image extremism to the Left\u2019s race and identity-soaked politics.<\/p>\n

Critically, the Overton Window was smashed not by a politician but by a very American hybrid of corporate\/entertainment titan \u2014 a man rich and powerful enough to be immune to elite condemnation and famous enough to dominate the news media. How many people can commandeer live television simply by picking up the phone and calling in? How many politicians can cause Twitter to detonate seemingly at will?<\/p>\n

While many of Trump\u2019s actual proposals are misguided, nonsensical, or untenable, by smashing the window, he\u2019s begun the process of freeing the American people from the artificial and destructive constraints of Left-defined discourse. Serious and substantive politicians like Ted Cruz will get a more respectful hearing, and PC shibboleths about allegedly boundless virtues of Islam and immigration will be treated with the skepticism they deserve.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David French first introduces the political notion of the Overton Window and then describes the impact of Donald Trump on that window: Here\u2019s a term you need to know \u2014 the \u201cOverton Window.\u201d Developed by the late Joseph Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the \u201cwindow\u201d refers to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,53,13],"tags":[1037,188,196,1047,101],"class_list":["post-33913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-politics","category-usa","tag-donaldtrump","tag-electionwatch","tag-lgbt","tag-overtonwindow","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-8OZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33914,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33913\/revisions\/33914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}