275 Years Later, the Power of Tom Paine

[mackattack]

2. In all honesty from my readings of his works

I think Paine would side with the libertarians. Same with Jefferson.

In the US we like to link our political movements to the Founding Fathers because we think it provides legitimacy. Our political system is generally (compared to most of world history) a secular country and unlike places like Iran, who use/exploit religious texts to validate their laws, we use the constitution and founding fathers. Linking things to them creates a semi-divine status to laws and political movements.

I dont think its necessary to do that. Good ideas are good ideas that should be able to stand on their own merits. Attempts to put historical figures on either side of current arguments creates an unnecessary debate and moves the discussion away from original argument.