Common Sense Thinking

Doing what is right.

My dad called it common dog f$ck.
It wasn’t pretty.
It kept him alive for three years in the war.

That’s what I mean by common sense thinking.

Common sense thinking is the active judgment the people use to live their lives.
It isn’t instinct, and it isn’t book learning.
It is knowledge earned through experience, passed down through families and work.
It weighs risk, spots danger, sizes up opportunity — and points us toward doing what is right.
It asks simple questions: Does this add up? Does it fit what I know to be true? What happens if I’m wrong?
It is the education of experience, the discipline of survival, the people’s way of thinking.

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The Lessons of Work

In the mine, you watch the greenhorn who can get you killed.
On the farm, you don’t plant in frozen ground.
In the factory, you don’t put your hand where the machine bites.
In the service, you follow the quiet sergeant, not the loudmouth officer.

Nurses know one slip spreads infection.
Truckers know fatigue kills faster than speed.
Teachers know no child learns on an empty stomach.
Firefighters know you don’t charge a blaze without knowing your way out.

That is common sense thinking in action — judgment shaped by work, tested by risk, and trusted because it keeps people alive.

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The Lessons of History

Churchill knew Hitler’s word was worthless.
Lincoln knew McClellan would never fight.
Washington knew starving men could still march for freedom.
Rosa Parks knew she was just as tired as any man.

And we also know what happens when common sense thinking is ignored:
Plow under the prairie, you get a Dust Bowl.
Throw bodies at the jungle, you get Vietnam.
Lend money to the unready, you get a crash.

History makes it plain: when leaders ignore common sense thinking, everyone pays.
When the people act on it, they bend history toward what is right.

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The Folk Wisdom

We’ve always said it out loud:
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Don’t buy what you can’t pay for.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The louder the brag, the less the man knows.

These aren’t just sayings. They are common sense thinking passed from one generation to the next — the people’s education, written in plain speech.

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The Close

Common sense thinking is not theory.
It’s not a slogan.
It is the way the people live their lives.
It is the way we keep a nation steady.
It is how we decide what is right — and then do it.

So I’ll ask you—

America, what is your common sense thinking telling you about what is right today?