liberalsarecool:

Rick Pearlstein:

Republicans “plant their flag in an uncompromising position, and wait for the world to come around - which, quite often, it eventually does. This is because in a media environment based on the ideology of ‘balance,’ in which anything one of the parties insists upon must be given equal weight to whatever the other party says back, the party that plants its ideological flag further from the center makes the center move. And that is how America changes. You set the stage for future changes by shifting the rhetoric of the present.”

“Unthinkable” and “radical” policies are the starting point for GOP strategy. This is referred to as the Overton Window.

The GOP is so much better than Democrats at using the Overton Window.  They embrace their fringe to move the nation further right.  Democrats run from the true left.  Another problem is that at the end, the fringe right will fall in line and vote with the party.  The liberal fringe either won’t vote or votes 3rd party.  In the end, the fight for progress is always harder.