Common Sense, Then and Now
Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense. — President Donald Trump’s inaugural address, January 20, 2025 [Emphasis added]
Presidents other than Trump have invoked the appeal of common sense in their inaugural address, though in the case of George W. Bush it carried the message of perpetual war:
We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
That Bush had anything to do with establishing “peace in our world” would be a difficult statement to validate, given the bloody wreckage he created in Afghanistan and Iraq and the consequences for Americans on the home front, highlighted by the Orwellian 52,000-word USA Patriot Act and one of the act’s creatures, the Department of Homeland Security.
The overseas invasions and war on freedom at home were part of Bush’s War on Terror that one Chris Harget in Campbell, CA dared submit to logic and common sense, as it appeared in a letter-to-the editor of the L.A. Times:
How can . . . any reasonable person suppose that there can be a ‘war’ against terror? There is no strategic objective to win. There is no specific force to overwhelm. Terrorism is a technique, not an opponent.
In our society, terrorism is a crime and would be more efficiently and effectively treated as such.
In 2006 Mother Jones published a timeline of the lies leading to the Iraq invasion, which they claim is “sourced to primary documents and initial news accounts.”
So much for Bush’s liberty movement. But what about Trump? How closely is he aligned to Bush’s view? If you read Trump’s words closely you can hear a different message than the one Bush made:
Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success, not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.
He didn’t just say he wanted to be a peacemaker; he said it would be his proudest legacy, a far stronger statement.
As a hugely successful businessman Trump has no use for war. But there’s a problem — the Council on Foreign Relations calls the shots on foreign policy, according t
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
