Movement Started by iOwnTheWorld
The perfect gift any time.
Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window
Jan 22nd, 2012 by TMH
By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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 regard 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.
I look at the current crop of conservative candidates from which we have to choose and I can’t help but think, is this the best we can do? Really?? The most conservative of the lot that also believes in our military and protecting the US is Rick Santorum. He’s still my candidate and I pray fervently that he will prevail and win the nomination. But the odds are against him. The two front runners are both Progressives and it just makes my stomach ache to think of pulling the lever for one of them, all in the name of saving what is left of America from full-blown Marxism. It’s depressing.
What we would have considered taboo and a fatal nominee flaw a few years ago, is suddenly okay evidently. Sex in the White House? Not a problem… Cheated on your wife and divorced? Not a problem… Buddy around with known radicals and Marxists? Definitely not a problem… And the Overton Window slides inexorably to the left. What has happened to us? We were once the greatest nation on the planet. We had a robust economy, a strong military, a Christian ethic, strong morals, a rich history and leaders of whom we were proud. Now? Well, we have an economy that is close to a Weimar moment. Our leaders have gutted our military. Christianity is being systematically destroyed and vilified. Morals seemed to have been replaced by an entitlement mentality. Our history is being rewritten and erased. Our leaders are corrupt, gutless, spineless, knee scrapers, who only care about themselves and their personal pocketbooks.
And now comes the 2012 election circus and you can already hear the politicians crying that ‘he won’t stop touching me!‘ In a political tantrum, exhibiting brain damage, that is an unfunny parody of a Bill Cosby skit, replete with numerous and vociferous claims of ‘I don’t know!‘
The stupid and the lame give way to the ridiculous and extreme during this dance of the Progressives. And Americans sit there confused, apathetic and depressed while the elites do a jig on the Constitution and rob us blind during intermission between emergencies and elections. As our elected mob haggles over how best to control us, while enslaving us and getting us to behave, the anger among the majority of Americans (who by the way are conservative) is building and building…
Words that you didn’t hear a decade ago are being bandied about, such as treason and revolution. The whispers of unrest are getting stronger and the American boiling pot is about to explode. We all feel it if we are honest with ourselves. Many believe we won’t even make it to the next election, especially since there is an excellent chance the Marxist in Chief won’t be reelected. Any emergency will do and the Progressives have a whole list of possibilities to choose from. None of them good for you or me.
All the while, the establishment RINOs keep telling us that no matter what crappy candidate they choose, we have to vote for them or the world will end. The RINOs are Progressives on the right and gee, they just don’t sound that much different than the left. And I’ve just about had enough of that crap sandwich. But the third party guys aren’t much better and would almost certainly get Obama reelected. A death sentence for the Republic – no doubt about it. But as I said before, I may not like the choices, but I’ll vote for an old shoe before I vote to get Obama reelected. Whatever it takes.
It is in times such as these that revolutions are born. Don’t be fooled by the Occupy movement. They are meant to create strife and chaos to help the current administration. Most of what the left says, they mean the exact opposite.
But as a friend said tonight, you can only push Conservative America so far before they’ve had enough. And baby, we are just about there. America, she’s a-cookin’ and if things don’t change – and soon – there will be a hot time across the land and this is one party we could really do without.
If there is to be a conservative revolution in this country, we need a leader who not only knows how to balance a budget and cut spending, but one who has a spine and is willing to stand toe to toe against our enemies – foreign and domestic. Someone who is not politically correct. Someone who is moral and will do the right thing no matter the cost. America’s waiting – I hope he shows up soon.
From Sultan Knish:
Revolutions begin with an open contempt for and anger at the existing order. The left knows that. It is why it fears talk radio and populism more than it fears the latest set of dapper gatekeepers we send to the Senate. The contempt and anger are here, the more they go public, the more the power of the left is shaken. And the next step is to expand the cultural war to a specific disrespect and hostility for the values and sacred cows of the left. Then to challenge their institutions and regulations. And then real political change can begin with candidates who are revolutionaries because they believe it, or because they are operating under a new paradigm that is outside the left’s manufactured consensus.
Most of the elements are already in place. The consensus establishment is making its last stand, but it is fading. It is now a race between shaping public anger into a vehicle for political change and the speed at which the left is transforming and fragmenting the country to prevent a political revolution of the right from ever coming about. May we be swift for if the left wins the race then it is the end of America.
One way or the other, from the left or the right, we are moving towards revolution. The concept of revolution is now clearly inside the Overton Window. We’ve already gone down the crazy road and now we are heading for the cliffs. May Conservative America fight with all their might to win this struggle for the heart and soul of the Republic.
[...] 12:16 am ESTNo Comment stLight.options({publisher:'572c4d6e06ba8b82dec29053adafdaf5'});emailprintNoisyRoom By: Terresa [...]
[...] Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window January 22, 2012, 11:36 pm By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton Leave a Comment NoisyRoom [...]
[...] By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton - The NoisyRoom [...]
Terresa,
Ron Paul, the only Constitutional candidate gets nary a word in your narrative, what a shame. Santorum is maybe just a shade different than Newt and Mitt; establishment RINO progressives all. So it appears we are expected to choose our next McCain out of these three losers. No thanks.
One definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Again, no thanks.
The Republican Party will cease to exist if it forces one of these McCains on the people. They will be done! Time to wake up to reality.
[...] Jan 2012 09:16 PM PST NoisyRoom By: Terresa [...]
One of the reasons why we blog is to keep pushing the Overton Window to the right. Considering the fact that we started with a mailing list in 1999 with only a handful of people on our side, I’d say we have had some impact.
If your choice is between Romney and any other Republican, please avoid Romney. He is a lot MORE of a progressive than any of the others. Besides that, he’s corrupt and has corrupted others by buying endorsements.
http://1389blog.com/2012/01/22/mitt-romney-is-corrupt/
“May Conservative America fight with all their might to win this struggle for the heart and soul of the Republic.”
“Conservative” America seems intent upon fighting to nominate Newt Gingrich. Ostensibly because Mitt Romney is too much of a big-government RINO.
I’ll be voting for Santorum, only partly by default. I think that he is a conservative — I may be wrong. But, I’m not wrong in asserting that none of the other candidates is a conservative.
For every big-government progressive policy, position, statement, or action of Romney’s; Newt has three.
Yet Newt has far more support from alleged “conservatives” than Santorum could dream of, and from “bigger” sources — like Rush Limbaugh, who (as far as I know) has not had Gingrich on his show since the time when Gingrich told Rush & listeners that “we” (conservatives?/Republicans?) need to support Cap & Trade legislation because voting FOR it would be the only way “we” could “shape” the legislation. So inevitable was Cap & Trade, that those nasty Democrats would control writing the entire bill unless all Republicans and conservatives started pushing to PASS Cap & Trade immediately. This was well AFTER his Pelosi-pal joined him in an ad to jointly endorse Cap & Trade.
[[This was the stupidest thing that I had ever heard a human being say up until, a few months later, I heard George W. Bush state that he had "abandoned Free Market Principles to save the Free Market"]]
However, most “conservatives” seem to have forgotten what Cap & Trade was, and the impact it would have on America. And, Rush Limbaugh will NOT replay that particular interview with Newt.
It also seems that “conservatives” who had once been exercised about not only Cap & Trade, but the EPA itself and it’s rampant, over-reaching, economy crushing regulations, have entirely overlooked the fact that Newt has been a devout “Environmentalist” his entire life.
And that’s only ONE issue. I won’t bother getting into Newt’s personal pecadilloes as every “conservative” is ready to say ego te absolvo to anything and everything newt has done in his personal interactions, even if the same, or lesser, things would cause them to shriek about the immorality of any individual to whom they were politically opposed.
Nor will I bother with the ANTI-CAPITALISM ad run by his PAC.
I won’t get into these things because the Newt-backers, have become as fanatically unhinged as the worst PaulBots .
The Real-Politiker’s, Political Gamesmen, A.B.O.’ers, A.B.O.O.R.’ers (Anyone But Obama Or Romney), and those who disparage any actual conservative candidate as unelectable, have given rise to this Newt Movement. All the while ignoring that, as a policy and a slogan, “Anyone But Obama” is logically indistinguishable from “Hope and Change”.
The same type of thinking that leads people to conclude that the NAZIs couldn’t be communists because they hated and killed communists both in Germany and Russia. The same thinking that makes a distinction without a difference between Fascism and Communism because it fails to understand what “ownership” or “property” mean.
Should Newt win the Nomination, I will be convinced that the “conservative movement” in this nation has been smothered in the cradle by the ignorance, illogic, and irrational bandwagoneering that led to the “conservative movement” in the first place.
That’s my opinion for as long as I’m allowed to have it.
[...] knee scrapers, who only care about themselves and their personal pocketbooks.” …TMH of the NoisyRoom from her recent piece Revolution Moves into the Overton [...]
[...] – Doing away with the Electoral College! One man, one vote and majority wins! The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window Simply Jews – Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey vs FUKUS GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Going All The Way [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] 25.01 | This Week’s Watcher’s Council Nominati… in Revolution Moves Into The Overt… [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] 1 vote – The Glittering Eye-You Be the Judge Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor-A Tale of Two Disasters: The Titanic and the Costa [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] 27.01 | WoW!! | therightplanet.com in Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] The Noisy Room – Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 opinion – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]
[...] NoisyRoom By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton [...]
[...] NoisyRoom.net » Blog Archive » Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window. Share this:EmailPrintFacebookDiggRedditStumbleUpon Share this No Comments – Leave a [...]
[...] Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window [...]