The Overton Window

Noun phrase: The range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.

Example: “He attempted to shift the Overton Window on immigration by proposing that, in order to build up our population to compete with China’s 1.3 billion people, the US admit 100 million immigrants from Latin America and Africa in the next decade.”

Thanks to Bob K. for bringing this very interesting concept to my attention.