Thanks to the lovely and talented SusanG, I was able to read
this rescued diary this morning, which introduced me to the term
Overton Window.
And... I knew it! I-knew-it-I-knew-it-I-knew-it. The right has been "normalizing" their crazy-ass radical ideas through an understanding between the radicals (talk show hosts / pundits / thinktank potatoes) and the pseudo-centrists. Radicals make the unthinkable thinkable as a part of their over-the-top schtick. Then the pseudo-centrists propose pseudo-reasonable compromises between the hairbrained and the status-quo. Neither the radicals nor the pseudo-centrists make an attempt to distance themselves from the positions of the other players.
If you think about how and why the national conversation has steadily tacked to the Right over the past decade, it's obvious that this method works. It's a sure way to get your tobacco-chewing Bubba to say "I thank that Revern' Hatemonger goes too far when he says we oughter boil 'em in oil. We oughter just shoot 'em. Like Senator Reasonabler says, we ARE Christians."
It can work for the Left too...
But we need to understand that the method requires kind of a cross between a big tent and a conspiracy. The angry radicals have to be in place, and they have to be over-the-top, and they have to be entertaining and charismatic enough to have a loyal following. Like TrueBlueMajority posted:
audemocrat's excellent post on the other diary should be tattooed on the left hand of every Democratic party official and candidate:
....it works so much better when Republicans do it than Democrats [because] [t]hey are completely unified behind their fringe ideas. When one whole party in a two-party system starts talking about privatizing social security, its grows an air of legitimacy. But when a Democrat says "Censure the president" and the party leaders go out the next day to speak about how extremist that is--the electorate is obviously going to see the idea as far removed from the mainstream.
And let's connect this to the 11th Political Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Criticize Thine Own Party's Extremists, as expressed by FrancesAngeles:
The Republicans never attack those to the right of them, no matter what kind of hare-brained shit they say. Then, after the right wing crazies scream themselves hoarse, the Republicans step in and suggest a 10% less crazy right-wing plan and suddenly they are seen as moderates because they are not as crazy as the REALLY crazy rightwingers. The speaker at the conference said this: don't attack those on the left of you. Not ever. We need them. Allow them to pull the area of discussion left, and then step in to claim what is the new moderate position. Americans like the middle. Whoever decides where the middle is and positions themselves there wins.
I do have one original point to offer. There's a corollary to the idea that you don't attack your radical allies. Don't attack your centrist allies, either. There has to be détente between those playing the role or radicals and those playing the role of centrists. Both the radicals and the centrists need to be unified in the message that the
Right is the real enemy of democracy. You don't have to agree or pretend to agree. As long as everyone's moving the conversation to the left, save your venom for the other party.
The Overton Window works when you start making the unthinkable on your side thinkable. For instance, on healthcare, you want to hear the general public asking "Well, why can't we make Medicare universal?" Then your centrists say "That might be too expensive. We could try insuring all children and see how that works." That conversation should be amicable, since it's moving the window in the direction we want.
The window also works when you close down the conversation on the far side. You want "Iraq is going great, we should stay the course," to become an opinion that earns derision when aired in mixed company. That has to become unthinkable before you direct your derision at more lukewarm supporters who feel a responsibility to clean up BushCo's mess.
This is why Oldenburg's advice is important. If the MSM is going to harp on anything negative you say about your allies on the left, don't say anything bad about your allies the left. If you have to disagree with them, bury it so far in praise that they can't find a way to make it divisive. Whether you're radical or centrist, save your venom for the people who are moving that Overton Window to the right. cough*likelieberman*cough.