Thomas Paine, Founding Father...and agitator for social welfare programs funded by taxes on the rich

[brentspeak]

What's the worst part about the rabid mobs at the town hall meetings? For me, listening to them murder history by claiming they're "standing up" for the Founders' ideals.

Apparently, the mobs aren't too familiar with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice">Thomas http://www.ushistory.org/paine/rights/index.htm">Paine.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Those same people

Would crap their pants if they knew this particular founding father was also NOT a Christian. He was a UU. And we UU's take pride in that fact. :-)

[brentspeak]

8. I didn't know that. Thanks

[gleaner]

2. Yes....

and what makes it even worse, is that they have used the same arguments, rabid drooling rhetoric, and violence or threats of it in other venues. At abortion clinics, at the bedside of Terry Schiavo in Florida to try to keep her husband from exercising her wish not to have a brain dead existence on a respirator extended, having terrorists spring from the linen closet to further Bush's war agenda and his attacks on the constitution and the ideals of the founders.

Thomas Paine was a great man, the most radical of the founders in my opinion. His words in Common Sense really touched a chord in me when I was only 15 and studying Civics. The town hall thugs are the personification of mob rule. They are not knowledgeable about much, not even what they are trying to destroy, much of the time. They are simply trying to continue Bush's failed agenda and they don't care how they do it.

I wonder what the founders would have thought about torture, domestic wiretapping and spying, curtailing of protest and freedom of speech and all of his other abuses? Especially Thomas Paine?

[brentspeak]

5. If Thomas Paine and the other Founders were clued into what the nation would become today

with the corporate politicians and the town hall mobs and the (mostly) laughable media, they'd probably just put their styli down, calmly rip up the various documents they were producing, and apologize to the British: "We're sorry about for all the trouble; do what you want with the place. It's just not worth the effort, believe us."

[provis99]

9. you know, I think you're actually right.

if the Founding Fathers saw how idiotic the conservatives had become, they might start thinking that colonial rule wasn't so bad after all.

[gleaner]

10. In a way ....

I think you're right. But I can't sit down and give up my citizenship to a small majority of fools who exist to cause trouble.

These are very trying times in so many ways. My husband and I are nearly bankrupt because of the refusal of his health insurance company to cover many of the charges he incurred for an acute infection he was hospitalized with for 16 weeks last year. I have detailed it in several other places on this board, so I'm not going to put any of you reading my posts through that again. ;) We still haven't paid off our co payments. We can't. We are working very hard on our food and shelter and prescriptions which have changed and multiplied to the point that I have to lay them out in containers in order to make sure that he gets all the medicine he needs. We just keep plodding along like the majority of Americans in the same fix that we are and hope for relief someday.:shrug:

I wish Thomas Paine were here now, truth be told. I am sure he would deal with a lot of this crap quickly, expeditiously and effectively. In the meantime it's us against them and we have to keep trying our best. Don't give up. You have more power for changing the status quo than you think you do.

[brentspeak]

11. Thanks.

For what little it can do, prayers that things get better for you.

[gleaner]

15. They will....

These are very trying, dark times for all of us, but I think the pendulum will swing back to better days. It is an historical pattern.

Thanks for your post. You are very kind, and prayers mean a lot. :fistbump: I'll be doing the same for you. ;)

[TommyPaine]

3. Don't forget about Glenn Beck and his evolved Common Sense...

It seems Beck likes to think of himself as some kind of second coming of my eponymous hero. That's like comparing William Hung to Luciano Pavarotti.

A great Chris Kelly Huffington Post article from this April:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/glenn-beck-is-thomas-pain_b_187102.html

[brentspeak]

6. Good link. Bookmarked

[LostInAnomie]

4. Yeah, most of those "Christian Patriots" would be shocked if they would read "The Age of Reason".

Good thing for them that they can't read.

[brentspeak]

7. From the videos, a few of them might really fit that description

I'd wish they'd come around to clear-thinking and reason, but many of them have not been especially articulate about what the hell they're enraged about.

[Skidmore]

13. My favorite book....

I read it one or twice a year. Never fails to be a good read and an intelligent one.

[TheKentuckian]

12. When it comes down to it the only founder they have any interest in is

scumsucking Hamilton. The Republicans and white wing libertarians are his children.

[GodlyDemocrat]

14. What, Thomas Paine is not this old guy dressing up in silly clothes on the UTOOB

n/t