• queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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    14 hours ago

    The Overton Window isn’t real. Political parties can create their own political realities by leading the electorate, rather than cowardly tailing the electorate like they’re advertisers trying to sell a product.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        4 hours ago

        It gets the causal relationship between political leaders and the masses backwards.

        The Overton Window presupposes that politicians are limited by the electorate in what they can discuss and pursue; there’s a range of acceptable politics which is created by public opinion.

        The reality is that public opinion is created by political leaders and politics is the tool they can use to change the range of acceptable opinion.

        By getting the causal relationship backwards there is a tendency to tail the masses rather than lead them. Instead of using politics to create new political realities, politicians behave as if they are trapped within the existing political reality by politics. They seem to think politics is something that happens to you, rather than a tool you use to do things.

        There’s a range of acceptable opinion, sure, but it doesn’t limit politics. Instead, politics creates the range of acceptable opinion.