Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Singlehandedly Shifting the Overton Window

[JHan]

8. I'd caution references to Overton Theory

Laura Marsh wrote a great piece in the New Republic debunking it, and I'm mystified it's still referenced.

As she said:

The more divided we become, the harder it is to locate the Overton Window, let alone move it. There is now a window of policies that are acceptable to the Republican base, and another for Democrats, but on the national level, there is no window. Instead of a consensus edging one way or another, we have a choice between two poles. The Overton Window is ultimately a name for what we have lost, not an indication of where we are headed. Its popularity today represents a powerful nostalgia for the center. It doesn’t help us overcome fragmentation or rebuild a consensus. Its attractiveness lies in its reassurance that a middle ground once existed..

it was made up by libertarians who thought they could drown out the market place of ideas with extremist ideas to make them more acceptable.The overton window theory does not capture the diverse polity and vast range of political viewpoints that exists.

THe ideas AOC have been expousing have found popularity among Americans ( democrats at least) for a while now. It was the ACA which really cemented for a lot of people that affordable healthcare should be a right. As for taxation that's a thorny one, Americans find taxation inherently repulsive , independence was birthed out of taxes but at least among Democrats there's been the belief that the rich should pay their due share in taxes.

As for the marginal tax rate, we no longer live during the time of Eisenhower. The super rich like Bezos generate wealth not through wage income but investments. What the super rich would NOT like is a tax on their wealth, and closing their ability to send their wealth outside, which they pay very little tax on. Consumption tax is also a joke. More progressive tax systems, less regressive taxes ( which hurt the poor) are what's needed.