The Illusion of Joe Manchin's "Common Sense"

"This pompous and wholly uninsightful tome groans under the weight of such language-the next time I hear someone use the phrase "every cliche in the book," I'll assume that this is the book they're talking about-but the notion of "common sense" gets a particularly heavy workout. In addition to including it in the subtitle, Manchin says that his father rolled it together with "street sense" and "business sense" to forge principles that stuck with him for life."

"Manchin runs for governor of West Virginia, in 1996, on a platform of "common sense and practical solutions"; he doesn't get past the primary, but later, after finally becoming governor and then being elected to the United States Senate, he backs commonsense approaches to guns, congressional accounting practices, voting rights, and an ethics reform that would have banned senators from campaigning to unseat their colleagues."

Joe Manchin presents a plainspoken persona that centers 'common sense' as a political philosophy, using folksy aphorisms and tautological slogans as governing cues. The rhetoric elevates everyday axioms into justification for moderate and conservative policy choices, framing those positions as obvious and pragmatic. Political career highlights include a gubernatorial campaign, service as governor, and election to the United States Senate with advocacy on guns, fiscal restraint, voting rules, and ethics reforms. The invocation of 'common sense' functions rhetorically to delegitimize dissent, normalize the status quo, and shield entrenched interests from progressive reform.

Read at The New Yorker