With MAGA Candidates, the Democrats Embrace High-Stakes Risk

In my perfect world, the Overton window would run from about . . . Ted Cruz to Amy Klobuchar — from pretty darn conservative to the center-left, steering the country in a center-right direction. Oh, Congress could have some hard lefties, preferably of the Russ Feingold wonky variety and less of the AOC celebrity variety, and I’m fine with idiosyncratic figures who don’t always fit an easy mold like Justin Amash or Rand Paul or Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. People with different life experiences see the world differently, and sometimes they’ll see something that you just miss. There are a lot of people you don’t want at the head of the table but still want to have a seat at the table.

But to turn the Overton window sideways, the goal is sometimes to get the highest ceiling — electing the best possible elected officials, enacting the best possible policy outcomes — and/or to raise the floor, electing the least-bad possible elected officials, enacting the least-bad possible policy outcomes.

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Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review.

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In my perfect world, the Overton window would run from about . . . Ted Cruz to Amy Klobuchar — from pretty darn conservative to the center-left, steering the country in a center-right direction. Oh, Congress could have some hard lefties, preferably of the Russ Feingold wonky variety and less of the AOC celebrity variety, and I’m fine with idiosyncratic figures who don’t always fit an easy mold like Justin Amash or Rand Paul or Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. People with different life experiences see the world differently, and sometimes they’ll see something that you just miss. There are a lot of people you don’t want at the head of the table but still want to have a seat at the table.

But to turn the Overton window sideways, the goal is sometimes to get the highest ceiling — electing the best possible elected officials, enacting the best possible policy outcomes — and/or to raise the floor, electing the least-bad possible elected officials, enacting the least-bad possible policy outcomes.