Common sense. We all know what it means, but common as it is, definitions and ideas of it have changed over centuries.
Aristotle connected common sense directly to the senses, and the ways in which we use different tastes, colors, feelings, smells and sounds to collectively perceive and categorize things.
Descartes agreed with Aristotle that it linked the mind to the senses, but argued it was a less effective tool of judgment than mathematical and methodical reasoning.
I’m partial to Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico’s definition of common sense: “Judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire people, an entire nation, or the entire human race.”
In other words, we can all practice common sense.
Or at least you’d think so, anyway.
But if any of these philosophers were dropped into 2024 America, in the midst of one of the craziest, messiest, most bizarre political elections in our history, they’d be hard-pressed to find common sense in evidence anywhere.
Let’s start with the obvious.
The nation watched as a frail, somewhat confused, steeply declining 81-year-old man failed to put coherent sentences together, keep his thoughts on track, and effectively debate an opponent who, at 78, seemed robust and sprightly by comparison.
Since then, common sense is telling most Americans — the ones who aren’t hardened partisans — that Joe Biden is simply too old to be president again. The presidency is a hard job, especially in these trying times of global strife and domestic fragility, and someone who will be 82 at the time of his inauguration probably isn’t best situated to do four more years of it.
Common sense also says that Biden isn’t just too old, but missing a step. Americans can see, with their own eyes, his gaffes, his stiffness, his seeming bewilderment.
And common sense is telling many Americans, especially those who’d like Biden to defeat former President Donald Trump, that Biden can no longer do that. Why? They can see the polls, almost all of which show Trump widening his lead against Biden.
They can see what plenty of down-ballot Democrats can see all too well, which is that Biden most likely can’t beat Trump and might even drag down House members and senators, too.
Common sense says Democrats should have chosen someone else to lead the party into the future.
And yet, the president and his surrogates are telling Americans that Biden is just fine. “He is as sharp as ever,” his press secretary told the media, with a straight face.
He just had a bad cold, they said.
He was jet-lagged, they said.
He had over-prepared, they said.
They also told us the polls are wrong, and Biden is the best person to beat Trump.
But none of these excuses make any sense to most Americans. Because most Americans have common sense.
Over on the right, things are hardly any better. In fact, they may be worse.
Republicans are on the verge of nominating a man for president who lost the White House, the House and the Senate, incited an insurrection, got impeached twice, and is a rapist and convicted felon.
Common sense is telling most Americans — the ones who aren’t locked in the cult of MAGA — that Donald Trump is wholly unfit for the job. He’s also too old, also missing a step, routinely fumbles his words, can’t answer basic questions, and has said and done things that make him morally and physically questionable.
Common sense says that having a convicted felon for president, someone who had an affair with a porn star and then paid her to keep it quiet, would be embarrassing for America.
Common sense says that Republicans should have selected someone who could lead the party into the future.
But Trump and his surrogates have told us with a straight face for nearly 10 years that everything common sense tells us is a weakness is actually Trump’s strength. They’ve told us not to believe anything we hear or see. They’ve told us Trump’s lies are “alternative facts,” his peccadillos are his political prowess, his moral failings, his evidence of masculinity.
The gaslighting from both sides is truly impressive, but too many of us have turned off our common sense in order to adhere to each party’s obscene and insane purity tests.
Both parties are taking advantage of this, knowing that our common sense is now fragile and fungible, that we’ve become complacent and convincible, that we are more vulnerable to persuasion than ever before.
But plenty of Americans — not coincidentally those who are disillusioned with our two parties — have not turned off their common sense. They see through the lies and gaslighting, and importantly, they will decide this election. And that should scare both candidates.
