The Overton Window, and Allison Kilkenny on the Tea Party

By John Ballard

After enduring last night's Angle/Reid encounter (I hesitate to use the word debate) I need a shot of something strong this morning to clear my head.
This helps. Allison Kilkenny is like a splash of icewater. She deserves more coverage.

When I say the Tea Party is filled with extremists, I don�t think they�re all the type of people who are willing to take up arms against the gubment. However, they are much more likely to buy extreme theories and hold extreme positions. How else could they bear to watch Glenn Beck scribble on his chalkboard night after night as he absurdly links unrelated liberal groups and activists to each other?

Terrified people are looking to make sense of their world � to bring some order to the chaos of their lives. Even if what Beck is saying makes zero sense (as it usually does,) the fact that he gives the illusion of a plan brings comfort to the Tea Party. It�s sort of like if you were five and your crazy uncle tried to explain the mysteries of the universe to you. He might start talking about Zeus and lightning bolts, but you�ll probably buy whatever shit he�s peddling because it�s simply some kind of narrative. And he�s your uncle. And you�re five.

I imagine the 44 percent of likely voters, who say the Democratic Party is more dominated by its extreme elements, have been swayed by the �Obama is a Socialist� narrative, which by the way, was a narrative shaped by the Republican Party, but officially co-opted by the extremist Tea Party.

It�s pure genius. When the right�s policies (tax cuts for the wealthy, unending wars, etc.) completely fucked the economy, they shifted the blame to Obama who they labeled a Socialist � left of left. By osmosis, Obama (and all the ills of the country) became the fault of leftist extremists. Neat, huh? Like douche bag magic.

The Overton Window can be bought.
And the wrong people have too much money.
Sharon Angle's campaign has attracted fourteen million dollars.
The Overton Window is, to coin a term, is being angled in the wrong direction.

What is the Overton Window?

The Overton window, in political theory, describes a "window" in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on a particular issue. It is named after its originator, Joseph P. Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

At any given moment, the �window� includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too �extreme� or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office.

Overton arranged the spectrum on a vertical axis of �more free� and �less free� in regards to government intervention. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable. The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as:

• Unthinkable


• Radical


• Acceptable


• Sensible


• Popular


• Policy

The Overton Window is a means of visualizing which ideas define that range of acceptance by where they fall in it. Proponents of policies outside the window seek to persuade or educate the public so that the window either �moves� or expands to encompass them. Opponents of current policies, or similar ones currently within the window, likewise seek to convince people that these should be considered unacceptable.

Other formulations of the process created after Overton's death add the concept of moving the window, such as deliberately promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous "outer fringe" ideas, with the intention of making the current fringe ideas acceptable by comparison (This might be a form of the �Door-in-the-face technique" of persuasion.).

Glenn Beck has a book with that title.

The danger of books like this is that radical readers may take the story's fiction for fact, or interpret the fiction -- which Beck encourages -- as a reflection of a reality that they must fend off by any means necessary. "The Overton Window" risks falling into the tradition of other anti-government novels such as "The Turner Diaries" by William L. Pierce, which became a handbook of extremists and inspired Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. As Beck tells his soldiers in the voice of Noah: "Put up or shut up . . . go hard or go home. Freedom is the rare exception . . . not the rule, and if you want it you've got to do your part to keep it."

It is a serious mistake to think that Glenn Beck and others are ignorant. They are wise beyond words and know exactly what is needed to lead vast numbers of ignorant followers where they want them to go.  I repeat her part of a comment I made a few weeks ago.

We are witnessing the proliferation of previously non-political people getting into politics. Like geezers in bathing suits, they are as unembarrassed by their ignorance as old men and women in swimwear sporting a lifetime of wrinkles, age spots, thin hair and raspy voices. They are sadly oblivious to political realities, but those who point, criticize and malign them are forgetting that the targets of their snide remarks also vote. I watched the video linked by anna missed.

Innocent viewers who just came from Sunday School, knowing none of the back story about this woman, will have nothing but a positive reaction to what she says. Never mind that along with Beck, Palin and the rest of the crowd she is blowing smoke. Just because the words are as devoid of content as cotton candy it is a mistake to mock and point at those who buy them. There is a market for cotton candy, too, you know.

I live in a place where Glenn Beck is cited in sermons as a courageous man and a spokesperson for God. When a certain population of sincere Christians look up from the pages of their bibles they may not understand what they have read, but their minds and opinions are as malleable as those of children. They have been taught from childhood to hear and respect their leaders. Allison Kilkenny's illustration of the uncle talking with a five year old applies here. Seriously.

Back to last night's "debate," I was surprised when Angle used that old Reagan line "There you go again" at something Reid said. This morning NPR played a clip of a California race in which the Republican challenger used the same line, repeatedly. Listen to this report and pay close attention to the last half a minute.

Is it my imagination, or is it more than coincidence that these two candidates, miles apart and from two radically different constituencies, happened to use the same rhetorical device? That's too much orchestration to make me believe it's coincidental. Somebody is pulling both strings and the reasons are anything but local.