• Source: Third rail (politics)

      • The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. The metaphor comes from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems.
      Touching a third rail can result in electrocution, so usage of the metaphor in political situations relates to the risk of "political suicide" that a person would face by raising certain taboo subjects or having points of view that are either censored, shunned or considered highly controversial or offensive to advocate or even mention.
      It is most commonly used in North America. Though commonly attributed to Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, it seems to have been coined by O'Neill aide Kirk O'Donnell in 1982 in reference to Social Security.


      American examples of usage


      A wide range of issues might be claimed detrimental to politicians tackling them, but those below have all been explicitly described using the "third rail" metaphor:

      Withdrawal of Social Security and Medicare benefits
      Debate of race issues
      Antidumping and countervailing duty withdrawal
      Opposition to abortion for rape victims
      Resuming the draft
      National content policy in export finance
      The role that gifted education plays in modern public school segregation
      Debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. support for Israel
      Debate about mass immigration
      Diverting water from the Great Lakes to the Southwest
      Guns, including semi-automatic weapons and child safety locks.
      California's Proposition 13 on property tax
      The impact of meat consumption on climate change
      The transfer of Federal lands over to states.


      Outside the U.S.




      = Argentina

      =
      The Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute


      = Australia

      =
      Policies to address climate change
      Introducing Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, Makarrata Commission and Indigenous treaties
      Removing or reforming Negative Gearing


      = Canada

      =
      Reforming or privatizing public health care
      Reforming or privatizing the Canada Pension Plan
      Amending the Constitution of Canada
      Re-Criminalization of Abortion
      Repeal of Same-Sex Marriage


      = Denmark

      =
      Abolition of Store Bededag as a public holiday.


      = Germany

      =
      Introducing a speed limit on Autobahns


      = India

      =
      The introduction of income tax for agricultural income
      Changes to the reservation system


      = Republic of Ireland

      =
      Abortion was viewed as a third rail prior to the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which legalised it in 2018
      The provision of medical cards (which grant free or low-price healthcare to people on low incomes and the chronically ill)


      = United Kingdom

      =
      Drug policy
      Reform of the National Health Service
      Social care
      West Lothian question
      Rejoining the European Union


      = China

      =
      Advocating Hong Kong independence


      = Singapore

      =
      The term OB marker ("out of bounds marker", a golf term) is widely used in Singapore for forbidden topics, such as:

      Corruption
      The Sedition Act makes it illegal to "promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different races or classes of the population".


      = Serbia

      =
      Recognition of Kosovo's independence


      See also



      Asch conformity experiments – Study of if and how individuals yielded to or defied a majority group
      Communal reinforcement – Social phenomenon
      Foot-in-the-door technique – Compliance tactic
      Groupthink – Psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people
      Overton window – Range of ideas tolerated in public discourse
      Spiral of silence – Political science and mass communication theory


      References

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