I recently viewed the "Thomas Paine's Second American Revolution" Youtube video. It was striking how populist rhetoric could be thrown together with far-right talking points, without bothering to research what Paine himself was all about.

Perhaps most ironic is that "he" delivers this in front of a copy of... The Constitution o_0

Here are a few excerpts from Thomas Paine's Open Letter to George Washington.

"It was only to the absolute necessity of establishing some Federal authority, extending equally over all the States, that an instrument so inconsistent as the present Federal Constitution is, obtained a suffrage...

"I declare myself opposed to several matters in the Constitution, particularly to the manner in which what is called the Executive is formed, and to the long duration of the Senate; and if I live to return to America, I will use all my endeavors to have them altered...

"As the Federal Constitution is a copy, though not quite so base as the original, of the form of the British Government, an imitation of its vices was naturally to be expected. So intimate is the connection between form and practice, that to adopt the one is to invite the other. Imitation is naturally progressive and is rapidly so in matters that are vicious."

In that work he sees that if the constitution is not improved upon, it will result centuries later in a corrupt feudalist distopia...

Well, Mr. Paine, with these "originalists" in our midst, we're well on our way

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