From a press release in 2013:
Today, after President Barack Obama delivered remarks calling on Congress to pass commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform, Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA-34), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, released the following statement:
“Congress will pass a commonsense, comprehensive reform of our broken immigration system. The question is not if, but when. When will the House Republican leadership allow a vote for a real fix to our immigration laws? The Senate has already acted — with a bipartisan 68 to 32 vote. When will the House Republican leadership realize this is good for our economy, our security and our families — in short, for our American values?
Or how about this?
To prove that the vast majority of Americans, even if our voices aren’t always the loudest or most extreme, care enough about a little boy like Daniel to come together and take common-sense steps to save lives and protect more of our children.
Now, I want to be absolutely clear at the start — and I’ve said this over and over again, this also becomes routine, there is a ritual about this whole thing that I have to do — I believe in the Second Amendment.
Commonsense is the common theme.
This, I suspect, is a meme being pushed by the left-wing, that there are solutions that are simple, commonsense actions we can take to fix X. I would guess that this phraseology is selected because it’s thought to appeal to the conservative segment of our population – a segment that has become hostile towards government and the idea that some problems are so hard to solve they require the government to solve. By connecting solution X to the concept that it’s just common sense, they’re pushing the idea this solution is obvious, and only vile stonewalling by their opponents is stopping these obvious solutions.
And it’s starting to get under my skin. These little red lights start shining in my eyes every time I see that phrase, and my distrust level is going up. Why? Because national-scale problems are rarely that simple. Because they often require in-depth analysis, and I have little faith that either side has indulged in that analysis – or, sometimes, that the expertise to perform that analysis even exists.
Let’s end my little tirade against semantic propaganda with an appropriate quote from someone I should study more.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. –H. L. Mencken
