Overton Window

 

Blog Post #8

In the 1990's, a free-market advocate by the name of Joseph P. Overton tossed around an idea he had come up with entitled the "Overton Window."  This window, while only metaphorical, would be a major influence on political documentation and commentary for decades to come.  

This idea states that there is a window of policy and speech that is deemed acceptable, and that going outside of that window can have serious repercussions to social acceptability and maintaining things like cabinet positions.  As this theory has developed political ideals have changed quite dramatically, drawing this theory back into the public eye in a fairly major way.

This graph illustrates the Overton Window, and shows how the balance of policy and popular can quickly become unpopular and fall into the category of radical.  This balance must be maintained by sticking to the status quo, or what is expected and accepted by the general public.  

As of late, this theory has been used in comparison to previous President Donald Trump, as he greatly broke the status quo. According to Vox writer Carlos Maza, "Trump’s presidency has forced news networks to grapple with conspiracy theories, right-wing trolls, and dishonest government spokespeople -- making them a regular fixture of our national political debates." This statement proclaims that since Trump has made it common-place to go outside the norm and be controversial, that it's now an inevitability that trolls and radical speakers will be prevalent in today's political world.

One prominent idea that has arisen as of this recent change in politics is the idea that the Overton Window can actually move, where what was once absolutely unacceptable can become what everyone assumes is normal.  This has happened in the past, where political leaders have been able to completely shift the outlook of a peoples, making them do things that they might have once considered unthinkable.  This outlook is another one of the speculative ideas that has been weighed against Trump's presidency.

The power that was shown during the four year stint in office was palpable, and it was almost entirely because of how controversial he was.  His ability to shift the public eye so entirely allowed his cabinet to put in place laws that almost definitely would not have passed otherwise.  Laws restricting firearms and marijuana alone have changed quite dramatically in the last four years in ways that likely would have been unthinkable to someone from just a few decades ago.

Justin Sullivan - Getty Images

One of the reasons why this radical way of going about politics works so well is the fact that it feeds into what a specific audience wants to hear.  The further these specific groups can get into their ideals, the more likely they are to continue converting others to their way of thinking.  As stated by tech analyst Ben Thompson, "The most successful politicians in an aggregated world are not the ones who serve the party but rather those who tell voters what they most want to hear."  This all comes together to explain what the Overton Window is and how it can influence a voting populace.