Thomas Paine: Fear, Government Power and Standing Armies
From the earliest days of the republic, politicians have used fear to expand government power. This was the strategy the Federalist Party used to get a standing army. Thomas Paine called them out on it. The founding generation was extremely wary of standing armies....
Resistance is Crucial to the Advancement of Liberty
Patrick Henry told us that “government is no more than a choice among evils.” Thomas Paine held the same view. In Common Sense, he wrote, “Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its...
The Founders Predicted our Economic Crisis
Did Thomas Jefferson call the economic crisis? “Every thing predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. we are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper as we were formerly by the old Continental paper.” That’s from a letter to...