Are The Founding Fathers Still Dear to the Right?

[g5000]

He wrote this, in Common Sense:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.

That's pretty much in line with my beliefs.

Government is rarely the solution to any problem, but can be the cause of nearly every problem.

I also agree with Paine's sentiments in Common Sense. How do you feel about the beliefs he espouses in Agrarian Justice and The Age of Reason?

 

[lennypartiv]

Hmm, let's see, the Founding Fathers only let the smart people vote. As a result we became the envy of the world. Sounds like the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing.

 

[g5000]

Hmm, let's see, the Founding Fathers only let the smart people vote.

Luckily for you, that's no longer the case.

 

[lennypartiv]

Luckily for you, that's no longer the case.

It's you libs that would have to worry about being prevented from voting if we stopped letting dumb people vote again.