This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 8, 2025.

“That fresh breeze you feel is the wide open Overton Window,” Elon Musk wrote on X March 20.

Musk isn’t the only one talking about the Overton Window. People on the left and the right use this concept to explain public policy. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote that voter apathy about taxes “marks a profound shift of the so-called Overton Window.” New York Times writer Paul Krugman sprinkled Overton Window references in his columns. Vice President JD Vance mentioned the Overton Window when explaining President Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine. Several years ago, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow devoted a segment of her show to the concept.

What are they talking about?

The Overton Window of Political Possibility explains how change happens. Fundamentally, politicians are limited by a “window” of policies that are widely accepted in society. Some policy options lie outside the window, and politicians risk incurring voter backlash by championing those ideas. Thus, the Overton Window represents the boundaries of what ideas politicians can feasibly enact.

That said, the Overton Window can shift, expand or contract over time. People change their minds, events reshape their views, and cultural changes make ideas trendy or passé. When that happens, new policies, once unthinkable, can be adopted.

For example, just a few decades ago society had a lenient view of driving under the influence of alcohol. In 1980, Candace Lightner formed Mothers Against Drunk Driving after her daughter was tragically killed. Lightner lobbied to raise the drinking age and lower blood alcohol content limits. The advocacy took decades, but today tough penalties are the law in all 50 states. It would be wildly unpopular for a politician to propose that we weaken drunk driving laws.

What happened? The Overton Window shifted.

What began as a model to explain political trends has jumped the curb and is often used for cultural commentary. The Washington Post said the band Escuela Grind is “shifting the Overton Window of hardcore.” GQ tells us, “the Overton Window of men’s footwear” has expanded. New York Magazine says “Cats,” the 2019 movie musical, “shifted the Overton Window of what our human eyes can process.”

While the Overton Window now enjoys global usage, it has its roots in Midland, Michigan. Joseph P. Overton was senior vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, where I now serve as executive vice president. In the mid-1990s, Overton developed a concept he called the Window of Political Possibilities. Overton was looking for a way to explain to potential donors how think tanks like the Mackinac Center, which do not engage in elections or cast votes on legislation, nevertheless influence public policy through research and communications.

Overton said that the gradations of any policy issue — education, taxation, regulation — can be arranged along a spectrum from minimum government interference (“more freedom”) to maximum government interference (“less freedom”). The choice that offers people the most freedom is not always the most feasible.

Joe Overton passed way in 2003 at the age of 43. His colleagues renamed the concept in his honor, and over the years it has entered the political vernacular.

Knowing if your preferred policy is within the Overton Window helps guide policy advocates. Ideas well outside the window call for different tactics than ideas within the window. People are not powerless when an idea is not ready to be enacted, however. They can publish research that weighs the costs and consequences of a policy, find compelling messages that resonate with the public and form influential coalitions.

If you want to influence public policy, it’s worth understanding the Overton Window.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.