Common Sense and the Common Good
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America by Chris Murphy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Stice
In 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appealed to many Americans because it made a convincing case for revolution and made the revolution appear anything but radical. The pamphlet made the reasons for overthrowing English rule so “obvious” that George Washington famously had Common Sense read to the troops. In 2026, Senator Chris Murphy’s Crisis of the Common Good is not encouraging revolution, and it is unlikely to be read to troops, but Murphy makes his case about what’s wrong with America in a way which appeals to common sense and suggests that his diagnosis and cures are reasonable rather than radical.
Crisis of the Common Good opens up with Murphy sharing a hockey dad story, the moment he realized many youth sports leagues are being controlled by private equity. His first-hand experience is reflective of a broader trend. Not only are leagues more expensive, there is an arms race for sporting equipment which is costing parents more than they can really afford. Even if you haven’t seen a parent slyly trying to record a child’s gameplay on their own phone—which is not permitted in some leagues—you may well resonate with Murphy’s take on things. He writes: “Everything in America not nailed down has become a commodity—even middle school hockey. Every minute of our lives is fodder for profit maximization. And when everything exists for someone else’s gain—even your child’s Saturday-afternoon game—it breeds emptiness and resentment” (7). The problem isn’t just being broke, it’s the way that our culture and communities feel broken.
According to Murphy, “the situation is severe. Our economy has become a values wasteland, blindly driven by the cult of profit, with its emphasis on extraction and greed. Strong, unique local communities have been swallowed by a bland, corporatized global culture. Technology has pulled us apart, pushing us into isolation. Citizenship has been reduced to consumerism, our schools no longer unify us, and governance has been captured by the very elites who benefit from this order” (19). The result is an “emptiness” that many Americans agree they are experiencing.
As bad as things are, all is not lost. Murphy believes that “America is still a great nation, full of millions of people who lead happy, fulfilled lives,” but “our spiritual core is damaged” and we need a new politics (24). He argues that we need “government reform, corporate accountability, stronger communities, and a shift in our understanding of what we owe each other” (25). Murphy identifies MAGA as a problem, but he does not recommend an exclusively political or explicitly partisan solution. Instead, he advocates a renewed pursuit of the common good.
The book is organized chiefly around the five “cults” that Murphy believes has corrupted our country and fractured our social contract. These are the cults of profit, everywhere, technology, consumption, credentialism, and corruption. Murphy draws frequently on the popular philosopher Michael Sandel and sometimes on figures like Neil Postman and Hannah Arendt, while balancing things with everyday experiences and clear prose. After all, even people who have not read Amusing Ourselves to Death may suspect we are doing just that with our phones. Murphy’s concluding chapter is about the “cult of the common good,” which is what he hopes will triumph in the years to come. He draws on Ronald Reagan and Ben Franklin and the idea of a city on a hill to describe the “world in which we were meant to live.” It is “a nation full of teams of individuals, in thousands of unique, vibrant, empowered communities, tied to one another in a collective exercise of improvement” (265). Murphy asks us to become a place where all Americans have agency, practice decency, and experience community.
Crisis of the Common Good contains many of the observations that normal people are making on both sides of the aisle. No parents seem thrilled by the role of private equity in youth sports. Everyone agrees that the decline in community is negative. Even many non-churchgoers are troubled by the decline in church membership. Most normal people are wary of the cult of technology. Parents are openly rebelling against school-mandated screen time and rural communities are resisting unwanted data centers. No one thinks anyone needs more screentime. You would be hard pressed to find someone who would publicly state that humans do not have a need for meaning in their lives. American discontent is not just about inflation, but about alienation and exhaustion. Much of the contents of Crisis of the Common Good can be met by most Americans with assent.
It is very clear that Murphy is attempting to build bridges across the aisle and country. He does not pull punches on his dislike of Trump or disguise his like of Biden, but he identifies problems within the Democratic Party and their approach to America’s situation. He considers Trump a symptom of larger problems, not the source of all our problems. Murphy references his sometime church attendance as a child and writes about family and community and values. He bemoans the loss of small-town, local stores. Without affirming present-day JD Vance, Murphy writes about working with him when Vance was more independent. Murphy also writes about his cooperation with Tom Cotton on some issues. It’s an obvious effort to present a bipartisan image and court broader appeal for the Democratic Party, but that does not make it in any way unwelcome. After all, most Americans agree that America is too divided.
Crisis of the Common Good identifies problems with America, but it also identifies possible solutions. In each chapter, Murphy shares some of his ideas for addressing the major issues. For example, he believes that tax laws should be more favorable to families with children and that it should be easier for families of multiple generations to live together and care for each other (and build an accessory dwelling unit—ADU—if they want to) (129-130). Murphy gets beyond broad generalizations about how to pursue the common good. An appendix offers “a concise list of this book’s main proposals for reversing our spiritual decline” (269).
It should be emphasized that Murphy wants the government to take the lead on certain changes, but he does not suggest that everything is best handled through legislation. In several passages, he says very explicitly that government is not a solution for all our problems. Some of his suggestions involve how everyday Americans lead their daily lives. Murphy writes that “more stress should be put on making our working hours more sociable, given that most Americans spend nearly half their waking hours in their place of employment” (130). Regarding the country as a whole, Murphy writes: “Our mission cannot be merely electoral. It must be spiritual” (24). This aligns with his emphasis on the social contract, which is not built from above. It also directly addresses conservative fears about liberal beliefs about the role of government.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense attempted to make the American Revolution a common cause. Arguably, many Americans have lately lost some faith in the possibility of a common cause. Certainly we hear more about the “tragedy of the commons” than we do about the tragedy of the enclosure movement. Crisis of the Common Good attempts to encourage Americans to believe in the common cause and take it up, for the good of ourselves and each other. Murphy wants us to stop asking if the common good is possible and to begin pursuing it. This may, in fact, seem like common sense to many Americans. The question remains, can we find areas of agreement on how to pursue the common good?
Elizabeth Stice is a professor of history and assistant director of the honors program at Palm Beach Atlantic University. She is the author of Empire Between the Lines: Imperial Culture in British and French Trench Newspapers of the Great War (2023) and she is a contributing editor and associate books editor at Front Porch Republic.
