Parenting & Family Quote by Jerry Doyle

Doyle frames a political argument as a casting call for moral adulthood: stop treating other people as the enemy when there are villains big enough to dwarf our petty plots. The repetition of "It's called..". works like a drumbeat, a deliberately simple rhythm that sounds almost like a public service announcement. That simplicity is the point. An actor knows how to land a line so it feels undeniable, and he’s banking on the audience’s instinctive recoil from suffering. You can disagree about taxes or foreign policy; it’s harder to argue with a sick kid.

The specific intent is coalition-building through reframing. By labeling poverty and disease as "common enemies", Doyle borrows wartime language without naming a war. He’s trying to redirect the adrenaline we pour into partisan fights toward targets that don’t have voter registrations. There’s also a quiet rebuke embedded in the list: we live in an era that can produce miracles on screens and in labs, yet still tolerates preventable hardship. Calling these problems "enemies" implies they’re beatable, not inevitable.

The subtext is strategically non-ideological. He doesn’t prescribe policy; he supplies a shared emotional baseline. That makes the quote portable: it can be used on a telethon stage, at a fundraiser, or in a speech aimed at lowering the temperature of cultural conflict. It’s not subtle, but it’s effective because it turns empathy into a form of civic discipline: if you need an opponent, pick one that can’t be reasoned with and won’t bleed when you win.