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| The Defenestration of Prague |
There's been a lot of talk about Paul Ryan's budget. One thing I haven't seen though, is Ryan's budget discussed as a play for an expanded Overton Window, which is what I think it primarily is. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the idea of the Overton Window is that there is a generally acceptable range of positions that people are willing to debate on an issue. This is the Overton Window. If a player in the debate proposes something far outside of that window, then suddenly, more moderate proposals on that end of the window, or maybe even proposals previously outside the window, become debatable positions. The concept is similar to the negotiation strategy known as "anchoring," but in a political debate, rather than a two-party negotiation. The Bush Administration very successfully used this tactic all over the place, most notably with respect to torture, which went from never acceptable to suddenly being debatable to a large portion of the public, because some people were cheering for it outright.
