Trump makes use of ‘widespread sense’ to make a political level : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff9%2Fb6%2F942ad3434dc48dcc47c8cce15a91%2Ftrump-common-sense.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4500x3000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff9%2Fb6%2F942ad3434dc48dcc47c8cce15a91%2Ftrump-common-sense.jpg" class="img" alt="On the left is a photo of President Trump pointing his finger while seated. On the right is a photo of the 1776 title page of "Common Sense," by Thomas Paine. The top of the page says "COMMON SENSE" in all capital letters. Underneath is the subtitle: "Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, On the following Subjects. I. Of the Origin and Design of Government in general, with concise Remarks on the English Constitution. II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession. III. Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs. IV. Of the present Ability of America, with some miscellaneous Reflections." It was the first published work to openly propose American independence from Great Britain." fetchpriority="high"/> Left: President Trump gestures throughout a gathering on the White Home on Oct. 14. Proper: The title web page of the 1776 R. Bell version of "Widespread Sense," by American creator and politician Thomas Paine. Kevin Dietsch and Joe Griffin/Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs conceal caption

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Kevin Dietsch and Joe Griffin/Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs The thought of "widespread sense" has been central to American politics because the founding of america. Politicians nonetheless use the phrase on a regular basis — and maybe none extra so than President Trump.

Simply this month at a Cupboard assembly, he used the phrase when he once more beneficial that pregnant girls not take Tylenol.

"There's one thing occurring, and now we have to handle it. And so, I am addressing it the most effective I can as a nondoctor, however I am a person of widespread sense," he mentioned.

He additionally used the time period when he solid doubt on the month-to-month jobs report on CNBC in August: "It's very rigged. Sensible folks understand it. Folks with widespread sense understand it."

The White Home has additionally used it to elucidate the present authorities shutdown.

"Not sufficient Democrats voted for this widespread sense, clear persevering with decision to maintain the federal government open," White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt lately informed NPR's Morning Version.

This is not precisely new. "Widespread sense" is such a broadly used political phrase that College of Pennsylvania historical past professor Sophia Rosenfeld wrote a whole guide on it. And but, she says, Trump's utilization of it's distinctive.

"He makes use of it greater than virtually anyone else in American politics," she mentioned. "Though, after all, it has a very previous origin story."

That goes again to Thomas Paine, in his 1776 pamphlet "Widespread Sense," which made the case to the earliest Individuals that British rule of the colonies was flawed. And in that, she says, Paine had come across the populist attraction of the phrase.

"It invokes some sort of primordial primary sense of bizarre folks, a sort of lived expertise that ought to transcend what the official or elite place is on one thing and notably ought to transcend guide studying and faculty studying," she mentioned.

And Trump typically invokes that dichotomy of widespread sense vs. educational smarts.

Talking to navy leaders in Quantico, Va., final month, Trump differentiated his administration from Joe Biden's, saying that Biden was surrounded by "radical left lunatics which might be sensible folks however dumb as hell when it got here to coverage and customary sense."

The phrase appeals extra to a number of demographics that strongly align with Trump, says Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican strategist.

"Widespread sense is the next precedence to those that reside in rural communities than these within the city areas. Widespread sense does higher amongst older voters than it does amongst youthful voters," he mentioned. "And I believe the rationale why is that it reminds folks of a extra easy previous."

And that understandably appeals to individuals who wish to make America nice once more.

However Democrats use the phrase too. President Barack Obama tried to move what he known as "widespread sense gun reform."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., used it this 12 months on her Preventing Oligarchy Tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

"I consider that within the wealthiest nation within the historical past of the world, if an individual will get sick, they should not go bankrupt. Widespread sense," she informed a crowd at Arizona State College in March.

A technique to have a look at "widespread sense" is as an try and sign {that a} coverage is not excessive and will have broad attraction.

However as Luntz factors out, it will also be a cudgel, particularly in Trump's arms.

"For him, widespread sense has an excellent broader which means," he mentioned. "It isn't simply that you simply're proper for the appropriate causes. It is also that the opposite facet is flawed for being ideological, for being political or being exterior the mainstream."

Rosenfeld has an analogous take.

"It is also probably relatively demagogic," she says of the phrase. "Widespread sense additionally suggests not that there is one other facet to it. The opposite facet in a debate with widespread sense is nonsense."

And in that sense and others, widespread sense could be thought of one of the crucial highly effective items of rhetoric the MAGA motion has discovered.

To Rosenfeld, Trump particularly makes use of the phrase to attempt to excuse norm-shattering conduct — like a September social media submit that Chicago was "about to search out out why it is known as the Division of Warfare."

Here is how Trump defined that to a reporter: "We will clear up our cities. We will clear them up so they do not kill 5 folks each weekend. That is not warfare — that is widespread sense."

"Widespread sense" gives the look of timeworn coverage concepts, even when the coverage — mass deployment of the Nationwide Guard into U.S. cities — was beforehand unthinkable.