Who actually controls the ‘Overton Window’???
From Wiki...
In the early 1990s, Joseph Overton described a spectrum from “more free” to “less free” with regard to governmental intervention, which he presented graphically on a vertical axis to avoid comparison with the left-right political spectrum. As the spectrum moves or expands, an idea at a given location on the scale may become more or less politically acceptable. Overton claimed that politicians typically act freely only within the “window” of those seen as acceptable. After his death, Joseph Lehman, further developed the idea and named it after him.
According to Lehman:
The most common misconception is that lawmakers themselves are in the business of shifting the Overton window. That is absolutely false. Lawmakers are actually in the business of detecting where the window is, and then moving to be in accordance with it.
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As we’ve seen in the last 10-15 years, what is ‘politically acceptable’ has changed radically.
My question is, ‘who’ actually is driving what is acceptable?
Is the the ‘left’, the new LLMs (AIs), or the ‘special groups’, e.g. LBTQ+???
And what happens when there is pushback?
Those with a ‘platform’ seem to drive their various agendas, but are they really driving anything or merely parroting what they’ve been told to say? I have no idea.
As a ‘boomer’, I know I’m well outside the mainstream today as a lot of what I believe is Christian based, patriotic, and I believe in taking responsibility for my actions. I’m one small voice, with no real access to make a difference, other than with my children and grandchildren. Sadly, even though they basically agree with me, their ‘peers’ are a different kettle of fish, to put it mildly.
There is no question the political landscape has changed radically, from bipartisanship, to partisan, to now dissention within the parties themselves. And more and more people are registering as ‘independent’, eschewing all of the political parties.
Will those independents be what save us???
What say you?
Generally speaking, I am afraid that most "independents", like "moderates," are simply people who haven't paid enough attention to know what side they should be on. They are the "undecideds" in all the polls taken on election eve; their indecision is premised on being uninformed. Their lack of information is premised on their sheer intellectual laziness. With the amount of information available on line, it takes an act of will to remain unaware. It is usually something completely irrelevant and unimportant that might push them in one direction or another. What is sadder than this is the lack of interest among the electorate, who are more engaged with the latest gossip about their favorite cultural icon in the music or film business than they are with the politicians who will be determining their fates and that of their children. When you stop to realize that, according to a Barna poll teken in 2024 only half of those who identify as "evangelical Christians" bother to vote in most elections, you understand why this country has gone so far off the rails.
Who washes the Overton window? And who keeps leaving it open?