January 25: Not so common sense

Common sense—neither common nor sensible

President Trump said he would return to Common Sense.

Well. Maybe.

Growing up, my mother used to try to motivate or cajole me with the phrase, “That person has book knowledge but no common sense.” Sometimes the implication was that I was in that category of person. As I grew up I came to hate the phrase and notice that people lacking of book knowledge didn’t act like they had common sense either.

The other quip is “Nowadays common sense is not too common.”

But I would say the “sense” part, meaning sensible and wise, of what is considered “common sense” is also not sensible and wise.

Some would say it’s common sense that the birthright citizenship should be ended. Why should a person who violated the law to enter our boundaries be able to tie themselves to their offspring born here because of an amendment designed for ex-slaves after the Civil War? 

Well .... a constitutional amendment is a constitutional amendment, you know. 

First, a specific category of person is being targeted in this “policy,” or as I would call it this disregard for the Constitution. The same constitution used to free us from the Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decision is the same constitution that guarantees freedom of speech says that if you are born here, you are a citizen.

Common sense says that a sixteen-year-old who gets pregnant should not have to bear the child and be straddled with it for the next 18 years.

Common sense also says a sixteen-year-old should not be having indiscriminate and irresponsible sex if she has no way to care for a child, and common sense says her parents should have more common sense.

Common sense says there is no reason to change the name of a body of water after centuries just because it borders more than one country.

Common sense is just a phrase people use to justify their choices. Decisions need logic, reasons, and values underneath them.

To say the least, Trump has been busy. Some of these actions I applaud in spirit—pardoning elderly pro-life protesters; plugging holes in the border. Some are infuriating (leaving WHO?) and others puzzling (ensuring states with the death penalty have enough lethal injection drugs).

In the case of all of them, the president is not supposed to rule by executive order. That is unconstitutional. The presidency was never designed to be a quasi-monarchy.

That said, I am really tired of virtue signaling by Trump “resisters” on social media.