Changing the political weather
"Changing the weather" is a phrase we use so often in the Momentum framework, to describe how movements create space for concrete reforms to be implemented.
Other ways we and others may refer to the same or similar concepts as:
- Changing the political weather
- Changing the weather
- Shifting the political terrain
- Creating a new "common sense"
- Culture shift
- Public opinion shift
- Changing societal attitudes
- Etc....
When it comes to "public opinion shift," it is only the same as "changing the political weather" if public opinion is shifting to the extent that it is changing what is possible to win – for example, what kind of bills can be supported and passed, what the "safe" side of an issue is for our leaders, what kind of perspectives are socially accepted or stigmatized, and so on.
From the Resistance Guide (available online, at p32):
The Women’s March. The airport protests. Occupy. Black Lives Matter.
All of these did more than change public opinion. They changed the political weather.
What’s the difference? Just as passive political support is not the same as active popular support, normal fluctuations in public opinion are not the same as significant shifts that signal the possibility for genuine political change. As social movements develop active popular support, their activities begins to have ripple effects. Social movements can do more than shift opinion—they can make once-radical opinions into a new conventional wisdom. As the 2008 financial crisis set about ruining thousands of lives, national political opinion was obsessed with debt reduction. Occupy upended that discussion, re-centering it around inequality. Before Black Lives Matter, the criminal justice debate was focused on crime and punishment. Black Lives Matter expanded it to address police violence and racism. Both of these movements led to dozens of local, state, and even federal policy changes, such as millionaire taxes in the case of Occupy and body cameras for officers in the case of Black Lives Matter.
Read more in-depth about one example of "changing the weather" at Passive support for Occupy Wall Street – check out the framing section – and Active support for Occupy Wall Street where you can read about politicians adopting Occupy messaging.