''The ‘Overton window’ is a term from
political science meaning the acceptable range of political thought in a
culture at a given moment. It was the creation of Joseph Overton, a
think-tank intellectual based in Michigan, who died in 2003 at 43 after a
solo plane accident. His crucial insight, one which both emerged from
and was central to the work of the think tank Right, was that the window
of acceptability can be moved. An idea can start far outside the
political mainstream – flat taxes, abolish the IRS, more guns in
schools, building a beautiful wall and making Mexico pay – but once it
has been stated and argued for, framed and restated, it becomes
thinkable. It crosses over from the fringe of right-wing think-tankery
to journalistic fellow-travellers; then it crosses over to the fringe of
electoral politics; then it becomes a thing people start seriously
advocating as a possible policy. The window has moved, and rough beasts
come slouching through it to be born..''
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