Was FDR right about "Americanism"?

[cowcommander]

Because I'm arguing right now with someone who doesn't seem to think so, what should I tell to him? All I can think of right now are some very nasty words that would get me banned.

[reformist2]

1. I think FDR had it right. What is your friend saying?

[Larkspur]

2. The American Revolution was the first one in history where the rebels

fought for an ideal of self-governance as highlighted by Thomas Paine in his famous pamphlet "Common Sense"
<blockquote>
Little did Paine realize that his writings would set fire to a movement that had seldom if ever been worked out in the Old World: sovereignty of the people and written constitutions, together with effective checks and balances in government.
-- Thomas Paine's Common Sense
</blockquote>
Paine and the Founding Fathers of America were influenced by the liberal thinkers of the Enlightenment, specifically John Locke, who opposed the "divine right of kings". In his famous pamphlet, Thomas Paine did not appeal to his reader's ethnicity, religion, or race. He appealed to their sense of liberty, as Locke defined it. The spirit of Paine's "Common Sense" and John Locke's philosophy were echoed in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

The American Revolution and Enlightenment were clear philosophical breaks from the Old World, where nations were formed through thousands of years of ethnic groups congregating in certain regions or through conquest and assimilation of other groups.