We just had a provincial election, followed by a municipal one, and there was a campaign in the city election that annoyed me called “Common Sense Regina”. Immediately when I heard it, I thought “right wing”. Common sense isn’t a partisan word on its own- anyone can have it- but in a campaign, the slogans “common sense” and “back to basics” are usually used to deride complexity. In my experience, it usually pops up in an election where the people have been dealing with extending rights to people who don’t fit the judeo-Christian mold.
This is the case in my province. Our provincial government recently had some far-right American donors, called the Plymouth Bretheren, pay them to fight against the rights of trans kids in schools in court. Unrelatedly, Common Sense Regina, later found to be paid for by a man who runs a “libertarian think tank” in Alberta, put up billboards for this election trying to get Regina “back to basics”.
Usually, I have found, these phrases are euphemisms for defence against acknowledging the complexity of human nature. It is usually said in scorn of things that require the prefrontal cortex to navigate with wisdom and emotional intelligence. Common sense is great, it’s terrific, but in a political campaign, it’s usually used derisively against people who are politically vulnerable.
In Enneagram-speak, it’s often a phrase weaponized by type nine politicians who deride “snowflakes” because they never felt that they were allowed to be unique growing up, or to have needs that made them stick out from the family.
Yes, I know it was just a municipal election, but for example, if we take homelessness in Regina, social housing requires municipalities, provinces, and the federal government to work together, and when you have a mayor who gets along swimmingly with a premier and they both privately deride the poor, you are not going to get social housing.