Why isn't Thomas Paine considered a founding father?

[JanMichael]

Look, there are something like four TP statues in the WORLD. One in France and one in either Boston or Philly. That's IT!

That bastard was the ENGINE behind the "American" Plutocratic Revolution! Remember those freedom inciting pamphlets???

Ooooohhhhh....I get it...He didn't dig ANY Plutocracy.....Regardless of the label.

The French liked him for a while...Then he pissed them off too...

[mikehiggins]

1. He was sort of the Howard Dean of his day. n/t

[JanMichael]

4. Do I sense some irony? Just maybe?

Wait...There are NO Americans that are alive today that I'd EVER compare to TP.

Not a one.

But, that said, you just gave Dean the greatest compliment that I've ever witnessed:-)

[Limbought]

2. Everyone thought he was a real Paine in the ..............

(fill in the blank)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. because he was never in the Continental Congress?

[toodles_oduff]

7. I think you're right.

Paine wasn't among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. So that also left him out of the cast of characters of the musical "1776!":-) (Interesting that the only dramatic treatment of this episode in the founding of our nation was a Broadway musical!) Maybe some of his ideas were a little too radical for the powers-that-were who decided who to include as a "Founding Father".

[pasadenaboy]

12. You are correct!

Paine was very involved in the tearing down of the relationship with England, but wasn't at the table when the new country was set up (constitution, declaration, articles of confederation). He was more of an agitator than a leader (that's not meant to be critical)

[kodi]

5. he scared the shit out of people by supporting the french revolution

way too democratic.

funny, "common sense" is about the best treatise on democracy too.

[billbuckhead]

6. I heard Paine was an early communist. Way ahead of his time.

Wanted national healthcare in the Bill of Rights and stuff like that.

[kodi]

8. bill, you haven't been around lately, hope all is well.

i meet you at the may 2002 DU in atlanta, i was the dude handin' out the tie dyes.

[BurtWorm]

9. Socialist is a better description.

He did have an early idea about redistributive taxation because he believed the masses needed some incentive to sign on to the social contract. The wealthy, it could be taken for granted, had an interest in government, which protected their property. The poor, however, without some redistribution of wealth through social services, Paine thought, had no reason whatsoever to accept the legitimacy of any government. Actually I think Adam Smith had similar ideas.

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. He Wrote "The Age of Reason" in the 1790's. THAT probably

pissed off a few folks. Clergy, anyway. It seems to me, that would be tantamount to writing a tome entitled "Why Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are superstitious idiots and should be tarred and feathered"

or something like that

[JanMichael]

11. Yes, yes and yes...Three times YES!

He wrote the words that terrified the people in power. Both the Theocratic as well as the Civic...Needless to say he would NOT be a friend of the Bushites...I can almost guarantee that!!!

[Paschall]

13. He IS considered a Founding Father.

He proposed the name United States of America for chrissake. :eyes:

[JanMichael]

15. Not so much as the others.

http://www.mindspring.com/~phila1/

Hell there are but 5 statues depicting him worldwide, only three in America.

Sure he may get a mention here and there but he really is the most important revolutionary to be pretty much ignored.

[Nay]

14. Because Paine was pretty much an atheist, and his pamphets really

raked established religion over the coals. They hated his guts, and went after him in the newspapers. In my opinion, he should be one of the first we think of when we think "founding fathers."