* Scott Reeder compares the advancement of gay marriage to “right to work”…

About 15 years ago, when he was running for the Democratic nomination for governor, Paul Vallas told me he supported gay marriage. Shortly after telling me that, an aide called me and said Vallas was backing off the statement.

The idea was too radical back then.

Later, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, and the idea became acceptable for the public to discuss.

It is now legal in 37 states, including Illinois.

And, last year, Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Vallas, along with his running mate, then-Gov. Pat Quinn, ran a platform of touting gay marriage legislation as a major accomplishment of the Quinn administration.

It’s an example of how, in the Overton Window model, an idea can move from unthinkable to radical to acceptable to policy.

The concept can be applied to other issues, of course.

For example, Illinois allowing ordinary citizens to carry concealed firearms has moved from unthinkable to a policy in a decade, with the most visible action coming in the last few years.

Right-to-work laws could be another good example.

Five years ago, it would have been unthinkable for an Illinois governor to support a law prohibiting workers from being forced to pay money to a union in order to keep a job.

A year ago, Dan Rutherford, then a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, told Illinois News Network it wasn’t even an issue.

Now Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling for creating right-to-work zones in Illinois.

It is being treated by the political establishment in Illinois as a radical idea.

* While Illinois did pass a gay marriage bill and a concealed carry bill, most of the national progress on gay marriage has been via the federal courts, and it was a federal court which ordered Illinois to pass a concealed carry bill.

He does have a point, though. There was zero discussion of right to work before Bruce Rauner became governor. Bill Brady favored right to work in the 2010 campaign, but he didn’t talk about it a lot.

The debate is most certainly on, with Gov. Rauner relentlessly pushing his side of the argument. He may be able to swing some opinions his way, but unless the federal courts side with his “fair share” ideas, and/or unless his party gets control of the legislative district map-drawing process in a second Rauner term, this ain’t going anywhere any time soon.

* Long-term? I dunno. The unions need to do a much better job of defining themselves. To too many in the “movement,” it’s very much like a religion. They are actually a service provider, and they need to start thinking along those lines, marketing themselves as such and, most importantly, providing even more valuable services to individuals.

…Adding… From RNUG in comments…

Unions have a decent story about helping to create the middle class and they need to do a better job defining the destruction of unions being part of a plan by the 0.1% for destruction of the middle class.

I’m not sure they need to go all out against the 0.1 percenters, but they do have a great story to tell and people are becoming increasingly aware of the shrinkage of the middle class. They have a solution to a widely recognized problem.