Common Sense: Why the Democrats will lose in 2020

“Common Sense” is one of the most famous writings in American History, but to the members of the Continental Congress who formed the core of the leadership of the American Revolution, it didn’t really make sense. In fact, several members scoffed at it as not relevant to what they were facing in the winter of 1776. And while there are several ideological reasons why the Englishman’s (and recent immigrant in 1775) writing didn’t make sense in its anti-monarchist calls for independence (because, as you know if you read other blogs on independence, the colonies were already independent by September of 1775 whether they liked it or not) the most important reason for why Paine’s writing didn’t make sense is in the title. “Common.” Paine’s writing was based on common sense, the dullest form of reasoning available. Common sense is not the sort of full on frontal lobe reasoning being employed in the halls of Congress, or any halls of power for that matter. Uncommon sense is what is necessary.

Voters to Candidates, "Ring my bell"

But both common sense and “Common Sense” did have a purpose – it is best used to stir the feelings (not the thoughts) of the common person. And in that sense, in stirring up the emotions of common people, Paine was a success. And that is the AmericaHypothesis that explains why the Democrats will lose in 2020 – they refuse to campaign on Common Sense.

Common sense is appealing because by definition it is about ideas that are true because they easily seem true – you don’t have to think to make common sense – hell, it’s common. It’s not complex sense, or “hmmm, let me think about that for a minute” sense, or even “heavy dose of big words that are immortalized by Rodin’s Thinker” sense – IT’S COMMON – meant to be accessible, easy, simple, the type of thought where thinking is not necessary common sense.  This is the type of sense that makes for political success at the polls, and Republicans do it much better than Democrats. And right now, in early 2019, nearly two years before the 2020 election, the Democrats are a clusterfuck of uncommon sense, which might work among the faithful, but is a recipe for disaster in a general election. This reliance on complexity is how substandard Republicans beat their intellectual superiors as with W, Papa and Super Ron winning election over Gore, Dukakis and Carter (We will not speak of Walter), let alone Trump v. Hillary. Simple talking dumbass candidates appeal to simple minded dumbass voters. 

No, that’s not being too harsh and, no, I am not referring to the ignorant. I am referring to the average voter who just doesn’t know anything about the issues on which they vote. Oh, come on, you know that to be true. And can you blame the average American voter for not being well informed – no, not wanting to be well informed? And no, Virginia, it is not because they are stupid, or backward, or ignorant, but because …. You guessed it, time to show the man himself.

Living in the Empire has its perks. You have no need to be a sophisticated, policy wonk type voter. You have no reason to be able to find Mexico on the map or speak a second language. You live in the Empire and that is its own reward of power and stability and, oh, most of all, plenty. Even if we like to tell ourselves “times are tough” the truth is we all have way more than half of all Americans 100 years ago. Hell, we all have more than half the world has now. We moan for a better healthcare system when our ancestors and non-American contemporaries in the Third World wonder if they will starve next year or die from some horrible thing that the likes of US have never seen. We are so into our mass accumulation that there is no need to know, think or act about the plight of the world’s masses yearning to live. And so, we know about the things that titillate us. Sports teams, beer and Kardashians. Honestly, I thought Kardashian was a flavor of ice cream the first time I heard a group of people talk about it – er, them. I still don’t have the slightest clue though, about Kardashians, because I am an elite. Oh, not rich, not the real elite -- The elite referred to by the mass of dumbass voters. Someone who thinks about issues and wants policy formation that addresses those issues in the candidates I want to vote for. You know, someone with uncommon sense.

Promising the Kitchen sink, or in this
case the bathroom sink is not good politics.

When it comes to the failure of the Democrats, Part of the problem is the way we select candidates for highest office in the first place. In the primaries, or at least the run up to the first primary, which we are enduring now, candidates have to appeal to the base, most of which are uncommon – at least those who will actually take the time to vote. What that makes candidates do is to play “Let’s Make A Political Deal” which is a game that makes them throw out multiple sound good (and complicated) ideas that are rarely thought through, but are thought provoking enough to maybe appeal to the most rabid money donating elites. Break up, Facebook? Give Teachers raises, support a multi-cultural multi-cultured agenda? Mix that with tons of free stuff and you got a deal with enough voters to keep your candidacy alive until Iowa. I am not suggesting any ideas are good or bad, but what I am suggesting is that those things which will attract enough elite voters in the run to Iowa, will bring doom in November 2020.

The Mass of dumbass voters hate the elites almost as much as they hate                            (insert marginalized population of your choice). And this is not just red-necky, hate filled bigots, this is the average voter who votes through “common” fears and hope analysis and not complicated policy schemes. Fear needs to be a topic in and of itself, so we’ll leave that for another AmericaHypothesis, but common hopes, that’s easy to figure out and easy to figure out how the Dems are seemingly not going to figure it out. Most voters vote on common sense simple things, jobs, tax cuts, small government, patriotism and nostalgia. They want to hear good things and things they don’t have to pay for. But most of these common sense voters also do not want things for free. They don’t have to pay for greatness or freedom or any number of nationalistic platitudes, but when it comes to free stuff? Well that does mean to the mass of voters, taxes, and that means free stuff for                       (insert marginalized population of your choice) – and they don’t want their hard earned money (they don’t work very hard) providing necessary (or to them, unnecessary) services. 

"A deer hit my car." Isn't it the other way round?

Jobs, tax cuts, small government – it is something that the last two Democratic administrations were able to accomplish. Yeah, even reducing the size of government, but you would never know it because the Dems are too busy being complicated to run on a record that is just common sense. Mostly because the base of elites won’t let them. Trump will. The Republicans will. They get it and they understand dumbasses intuitively. 

Ok. Dumbasses is more for entertainment value than reality. The better way to phrase it is wrapped up in the lines of one of my favorite movies, Sergeant York. If you haven’t seen it, then you’ll just have to put up with this vignette (and shame on you for not seeing it). The family is around the dinner table. The final dishes are brought to the table and Ma starts a prayer of thanks for the meager existence they share. At the end of her prayer she utters a truism of American politics for the voting majority – who like to think they are still this way even if they are not – “and help us not to be beholden to anyone.” American voters want to pay their own way and buy their own stuff. Common Sense. And the Democrats will not run on that.

I know. I hope I'm wrong, too!