Is pushing the Overton Window the most important thing you can do in politics?
By Overton Window, I mean the scope of things that can legitimately contested in mainstream political discourse. It's something that changes over time and is different in different countries.
As examples: openly suggesting a privately run healthcare system in my native UK would be seen as a radical right policy proposal and is out of bounds for even our Conservative Party. Richard Nixon tried to implement Universal Basic income in the 1960s. It failed but the fact that a Republican president could even suggest such a thing then indicates very different political opportunities in those times.
For a very long time it's been the political right who have been the best at stretching the Overton Window and a generation of left parties have (and still do in some ways) adopt a defensive posture of triangulation and compromise because they thought it necessary to win power. I'm thinking of Toby Blair and Bill Clinton here.
Another example of that would be Ed Miliband, who was the previous leader of the UK Labour Party. He began with somewhat radical promise but was then forced into compromise after compromise until his economic policies were little different to the governing Conservative Party, who he still lost to.
Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour had a policy sheet which was moderate by historic standards but radical in today's UK. Though Labour still lost the last election, the vote share went up by 10% and Corbyn could reasonably claim to be the 'new mainstream'.
There are some obvious examples in American politics too. There is one reason why almost all Democratic Primary candidates claim to support single-payer healthcare and that reason is Bernie Sanders. He ran on it last time, it proved popular and it is now mainstream issue with the Democratic base. It's now within the Overton Window. AOC may get attacked for having policy proposals which are too far out there but the fact remains that a Green New Deal and a 70% top marginal tax rate are now being debated in mainstream American politics. If they are not viable options now, they could be in a few years and its all down to a young congresswoman for changing the conversation.
Obviously you can't always go on the offensive. Your proposals have to have some basis in popularity, at least with a section of the public. These examples do seem to show though that the left needs outliers and people who are prepared to go on the offensive. It's something which the right has long understood.
As examples: openly suggesting a privately run healthcare system in my native UK would be seen as a radical right policy proposal and is out of bounds for even our Conservative Party. Richard Nixon tried to implement Universal Basic income in the 1960s. It failed but the fact that a Republican president could even suggest such a thing then indicates very different political opportunities in those times.
For a very long time it's been the political right who have been the best at stretching the Overton Window and a generation of left parties have (and still do in some ways) adopt a defensive posture of triangulation and compromise because they thought it necessary to win power. I'm thinking of Toby Blair and Bill Clinton here.
Another example of that would be Ed Miliband, who was the previous leader of the UK Labour Party. He began with somewhat radical promise but was then forced into compromise after compromise until his economic policies were little different to the governing Conservative Party, who he still lost to.
Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour had a policy sheet which was moderate by historic standards but radical in today's UK. Though Labour still lost the last election, the vote share went up by 10% and Corbyn could reasonably claim to be the 'new mainstream'.
There are some obvious examples in American politics too. There is one reason why almost all Democratic Primary candidates claim to support single-payer healthcare and that reason is Bernie Sanders. He ran on it last time, it proved popular and it is now mainstream issue with the Democratic base. It's now within the Overton Window. AOC may get attacked for having policy proposals which are too far out there but the fact remains that a Green New Deal and a 70% top marginal tax rate are now being debated in mainstream American politics. If they are not viable options now, they could be in a few years and its all down to a young congresswoman for changing the conversation.
Obviously you can't always go on the offensive. Your proposals have to have some basis in popularity, at least with a section of the public. These examples do seem to show though that the left needs outliers and people who are prepared to go on the offensive. It's something which the right has long understood.
41-45, M
