Gesunder Menschenverstand in der Politik: Ein mächtiges, aber paradoxes demokratisches Werkzeug

**While the notion of ‘common sense’ has created fertile ideological ground for the emergence of liberal democracies, its blurred definition today allows unscrupulous politicians, particularly on the far right, to use it as an insidious weapon against democracy itself.**

In West Palm Beach, Florida, on the night of Wednesday, November 6, as Donald Trump delivered his victory speech, his tone suddenly changed to suggest self-evidence: “[This campaign was a] historic realignment. Uniting citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense. You know, we’re the party of common sense.” Indeed, who wouldn’t want, as the victorious presidential candidate listed, “security,” “great education,” a “powerful military,” and ultimately, “the most incredible future”?

It’s hard to contradict the US president-elect on any of these points, however vague they are. That’s the aim of the “common sense” rhetorical strategy, widely employed by Trump during the campaign, as well as during his first term (2016-2020).

The Republican is, of course, neither the only nor the first politician to resort to it. For decades, indeed centuries, men and women of all ideological persuasions have regularly used this argument of authority to justify their policies. However, by establishing the Republican Party as the party of “common sense,” the president-elect illustrates a dynamic that seems specific to the 21st century. This trend involves many populist figures on the right, and even the far right, systematically referencing common sense.

“Common sense” was also on everyone’s lips at [the National Conservatism Conference](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2024/04/17/brussels-far-right-convention-resumes-after-court-scraps-ban_6668690_143.html), held in Brussels on April 16 and 17, where European far-right leaders and intellectuals gathered. From Croatian MEP Ladislav Ilcic to former British home secretary Suella Braverman, each had been keen to present the policies pursued by progressive pro-European elites as going against common sense – meaning, against traditional, particularly Christian, values.

In France, the political movement Sens Commun (literally “Common Sense”), created in the wake of the Manif Pour Tous’ failure to get the government to back down on same-sex marriage, had succeeded in influencing the center-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire’s line in favor of the same conservative values during the 2017 presidential election. In 2010, Marine Le Pen was already positioning herself as the representative of this apparently pragmatic and consensual ability to judge: Interviewed by [Le Journal du Dimanche](https://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/Marine-Le-Pen-reagit-aux-sondages-interview-239583-3106538) about her good results in the polls, she said: “It’s the real choice of another policy. I embody common sense.”

Although the notion is popular precisely for its ability to appear anhistorical and atemporal, common sense does have a history that is not unrelated to that of our democracies. A closer look reveals not so much what a “politics of common sense” might look like but rather the various crises to which democratic rationality has not yet been able to respond, and for which “common sense” seems the ideal expedient.

**Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/12/16/common-sense-in-politics-a-powerful-yet-paradoxical-democratic-tool_6736110_23.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/12/16/common-sense-in-politics-a-powerful-yet-paradoxical-democratic-tool_6736110_23.html)