We are stuck with Biden and Trump – News-Herald

The first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump will be televised by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, 2024. Photo by Yuri Gripas/ABACAPRESS.COM

Common sense. We all know what it means, but as common as it is, definitions and ideas about it have changed over the centuries.

Aristotle linked common sense directly to the senses and the way we use different tastes, colors, feelings, smells and sounds to collectively perceive and categorize things.

Descartes agreed with Aristotle that logic connects the mind with the senses, but argued that it was a less effective instrument of judgment than mathematical and methodical thinking.

I am a follower of the Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico’s definition of common sense: “A judgment made without reflection and shared by an entire class, a whole people, a whole nation, or all of humanity.”

In other words, we can all use common sense.

Or at least that’s what you would think.

However, if one were to send one of these philosophers to the America of 2024, in the middle of one of the craziest, most chaotic and bizarre election campaigns in our history, he would hardly find a spark of common sense.

Let’s start with the obvious.

The nation watched as a frail, somewhat confused, ailing 81-year-old was unable to form coherent sentences, to keep his thoughts in order, and to debate an opponent who seemed robust and sprightly compared to his 78 years.

Since then, common sense has told most Americans – at least those who are not diehard partisans – that Joe Biden is simply too old to be president again. The presidency is a tough job, especially in these difficult times of global unrest and domestic instability, and someone who will be 82 years old when he is inaugurated is probably not optimally suited to serve as president for another four years.

Common sense also says that Biden is not only too old, but that he is missing a step. Americans can see his slip-ups, his stiffness, his apparent confusion with their own eyes.

And common sense tells many Americans, especially those who would like to see Biden defeat former President Donald Trump, that Biden can no longer do that. Why? You can see the polls, which almost all show Trump increasing his lead over Biden.

They see what many Democrats on the lower ballots see only too well: Biden is unlikely to beat Trump and could even lead to him sweeping the House of Representatives and Senators into the abyss as well.

Common sense dictates that Democrats should have chosen someone else to lead the party into the future.

And yet the president and his surrogates are telling Americans that Biden is OK. “He is as sharp as ever,” his press secretary told the media with a serious expression.

He just had a bad cold, they said.

It was said that he was suffering from jet lag.

It was said that he had prepared excessively.

They also told us that the polls were wrong and that Biden was the best man to beat Trump.

But for most Americans, none of these excuses make sense. Because most Americans have common sense.

On the right side, things are hardly any better. In fact, things could be worse.

Republicans are about to nominate for president a man who lost the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, incited an insurrection, was impeached twice, and is a rapist and convicted felon.

Common sense tells most Americans – those who are not succumbing to the MAGA cult – that Donald Trump is completely unfit for the job. He is also too old, has a mental defect, frequently stumbles, cannot answer simple questions, and has said and done things that make him morally and physically questionable.

Common sense dictates that it would be embarrassing for America to elect as president a convicted felon who had an affair with a porn star and then paid her to keep quiet about it.

Common sense dictates that Republicans should have chosen someone who could lead the party into the future.

Yet for nearly a decade, Trump and his surrogates have been telling us, with a straight face, that everything common sense tells us is weakness is actually Trump’s strength. They’ve told us not to believe anything we hear or see. They’ve told us Trump’s lies are “alternative facts,” his sins are his political prowess, his moral failings, his proof of his manliness.

The gaslighting from both sides is truly impressive, but too many of us have turned off our common sense to adhere to each party’s obscene and insane purity tests.

Both parties benefit from this because they know that our common sense has become fragile and interchangeable, that we have become complacent and easily persuaded, and that we are easier to persuade than ever before.

But many Americans – not coincidentally those who are disillusioned with both our parties – have not turned off their common sense. They see through the lies and the gaslighting and, importantly, they will decide this election. And that should scare both candidates.

SE Cupp is the host of “SE Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.