Thanks to Bernie Sanders, "political revolution" has become part of today's vernacular. It's been used widely to describe the need for change on the system level and on the policy level. It's a powerful slogan and a very loaded term. Revolutions tend to be messy. Glorious one day, bloody the next. Political revolutions often end with someone's head on a pike or a neck under a guillotine.
Fortunately, that was not the case in 1787. Although our War of Independence in 1776 was a bloody battle, it was fought for more than just our independence. It was also a battle over a political idea. The idea that Americans would establish their own form of government was at the heart of the American experiment in democracy, and that idea became the first peaceful political revolution in the world in 1787. That idea came from Thomas Paine and it was the deeper and more powerful cause behind our independence. Sure, despots and kings would no longer rule over the people, but in addition, Americans would govern themselves, peacefully, by creating their own constitutions of government. This was the essence of the promise of America.
For the first time in history, the people would create their constitutions of government. It was a huge deal. The right to govern ourselves was what made America so admired around the world. That right is the fundamental cornerstone of our form of government and it is enshrined in all our founding documents. And although the constitution was written in secret, approved by the consent of a slim majority of delegates, and declared the law of the land in 1788, it remains the one we still use today. We have inherited this political system from our forefathers. It's not really our constitution anymore. None of us have had anything to do with it.
I want to continue the Peaceful Political Revolution in America podcast with a deeper dive into the importance of Thomas Pain because his ideas, more than any other American, shaped the destiny of the United States.
Peaceful Political Revolution is our American birthright, yet few Americans understand that or could tell you why. There are reasons why the story of Thomas Paine has been hidden from view. If we want to understand why his message was covered up and almost forgotten, we need to take a deeper dive into the life and times of Thomas Paine, and the events that followed his death in 1809. For that, I've reached out to Professor Harvey J Kaye, author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America
Harvey J Kaye is Professor Emeritus of Democracy & Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and an award-winning author and editor of 18 books on history and politics - his most recent titles are Take Hold of Our History: Make America Radical Again and FDR on Democracy. (But we are here to discuss his lifelong hero THOMAS PAINE - on whom he has written Thomas Paine and the Promise of America AND a young adult biography Thomas Paine: Firebrand of Revolution.)
He is an expert on Paine, and he wants you to be one too :)
