What is Overton window?
The '''Overton window''' is a [[nickname]] for the set of [[opinion]]s and [[idea]]s that it is possible for a [[politician]] to have without losing any chance of ever winning an [[election]] again. It is a reference to the ideas about [[politics]] that is generally fine to have. ==Joseph Overton== [[Joseph Overton]] explained why [[libertarian]] [[think tank]]s exist by creating a [[chart]] of different political ideas that it’s possible to have with a straight line from “most [[government]], least [[freedom]]” to “least [[government]], most [[freedom]]” and said that the ideas that politicians can get away with supporting are in the middle of it but sometimes where that is changes. For example, [[ Prohibition]] is something that people once supported while being in the [[mainstream]] but then [[society]] changed so that no politician could get away with supporting [[prohibition]] because society moved towards more [[freedom]] and less [[government]]. Overton also said that [[society]] could move in the direction of less freedom and more government. Overton said [[libertarian]] think tanks existed to move society to the point where more [[libertarian]] ideas were more mainstream and [[statism]] was seen as more radical. After Overton [[die]]d, his think tank, the Mackinac Centre, started to call that idea, the Overton Window. ==Glenn Beck== In 2010, [[Glenn Beck]] wrote a [[novel]] called The Overton Window based on [[conspiracy theories]]. When talking about it on [[Fox News]], Beck said that the Overton Window meant things that politicians were willing to support and that the Overton Window changed when [[politician]]s decided that some [[idea]]s should become [[taboo]] or that some [[taboo]] [[idea]]s should become [[mainstream]]. The Mackinac Centre criticized him for saying this and said that it’s not politicians who change The Overton Window (at least it usually isn’t), it’s [[society]] that changes and the politicians change with it. ==Donald Trump== After the [[election]] of [[Donald Trump]] as [[pres