I have been thinking a lot lately about the Overton window. I am beginning to apply it to long term strategy being employed by Conservative thinkers/politicians in Canada, and what I like to refer to as the long con.
What is the Overton window? The Overton window is a concept developed in the 1990’s by Joe Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Imagine a giant meterstick, at either end are the extreme policy positions of any political issue. Between the ends of the meterstick lie all gradations of those policies. Joe Overton’s theory was that only a portion of this policy spectrum or meterstick is within the realm of the possible at any time. This portion, or small area of political possibility is the Overton window. Only political policies within this window will meet with success. The gradations on the meterstick are:
-Unthinkable
-Radical
-Acceptable
-Sensible
-Popular
-Policy
-Popular
-Sensible
-Acceptable
-Radical
-Unthinkable
-Radical
-Acceptable
-Sensible
-Popular
-Policy
-Popular
-Sensible
-Acceptable
-Radical
-Unthinkable
No matter how hard a political party campaigns for a policy deemed as unthinkable, as it falls outside the window, that policy will inevitably fail.
But how does this apply to a long con, you ask? And how does it apply to the Conservatives? The long con started with the creation of the Reform Party – who advocated for policies on the far right that were unacceptable to Canadians. This is old news, and the Reform Party only marginally pushed the Overton window right, but it had started. Stephen Harper and the merged Conservative Party of Canada moved it a little further right, especially when paired with a hawkish center-right Liberal leader like Michael Ignatieff. It wasn’t until Harper was contrasted with a more left leaning Justin Trudeau did it show Stephen Harper’s exposure to being outside the Overton window.
The advent of far right groups (Yellow Vests Canada), right wing/leaning media (Rebel Media, Post Media), and political parties in Canada (Bernier’s People’s Party) have been pushing the Overton window as far out of balance as I have ever seen it. The extreme political policies of far right groups in Canada are allowing the Conservative Party to move the Overton window right by advocating for similar policies as those on the far right, but stopping short of extreme views to seem moderate in comparison. With a weakened NDP that seems to be unable to effectively counter the far right, or push the Liberals to the left, the Overton window is moving away from balance – pushing what was once radical/unthinkable to the realm of the politically possible.
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