The Time Has Found Us: Modern Day Parallels of Common Sense

January 1776 Thomas Paine first declared these words as he provided inspiration for a Revolution. The Revolution.

“The time has found us.”

The words leapt off the page to me as I read Common Sense for the umpteenth time, but it seems like I had skipped past that part in previous readings. I can’t recall that phrase meaning so much to me before.

Paine was one of America’s first, and best journalists. Who out there in the media today could fill his shoes in time of great need?

Paine used this phrase in the context that there was no better time than the present to fight the Revolution. The size of the colonies, the resources of the land, the mood of the people and the feeling that a Power greater than them all was dictating their actions led Paine to conclude that this was not a battle to be left to generations yet to be born, that it was a battle to be fought in the present. So it was. An under nourished, outnumbered, ill equipped army of Colonialists took the words of Paine to heart and we can all be grateful today that they did.

Without reservation, I repeat the words of Thomas Paine today, “the time has found us.”

I would encourage you to read Common Sense and put it in the context of this day and you will find parallels a-plenty. While nobody thinks Paine saw our day (he had enough going on at the moment to occupy his time) there is almost a sense of prophecy as you read his words.

While traveling this great nation for nearly three weeks leading up to the 2010 elections I went coast-to-coast, 35 cities, to document and report from Tea Party rallies. I found an attitude and devotion towards the principles of our founding that was absolutely inspirational. Like in Paine’s day, these are Americans who want only to choose for themselves their futures, instead of having a monarchy dictate it for them. After reading Paine again, I believe he would have found this current administration, and perhaps even previous administrations, as ones that were not dissimilar to what he found in his day in Great Britain.

Today we have a government that looks towards what they say is the common good of the people, when their actions only serve a few elitists while trashing the rights of the individual. Or, put another way, the perceived good of the masses outweighs the Liberty of each of us. Of course, the monarchy and elitists always ignore the fact that the lessons of history tell us that when governments of any nation larger than what you will find in the suburbs of LA tries to control its people that way—disaster is the eventual outcome. It never turns out good. Paine understood this perfectly and his words leap off the pages at us today.

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

There is little, if any difference between the monarchy of Paine’s day and the elitists of our day (in both major political parties) and in them you will find a group of men (mostly men) who believe it is their inherit right to rule over the masses and control them.

Nothing could be further from our founding.

Today’s media members, caught up in the power of their position, are comfortable with sitting on the sidelines and hiding behind supposed impartiality, or worse yet, they have chosen to side with the elitists so they can preserve their seat at the trough.

The time has found us to reverse what has been 100 years in the making. I believe strongly that had Woodrow Wilson not had the Constitution to stop him that he would’ve followed his contemporaries in Eastern Europe who were on the fast track to communism, socialism and fascism. They got there, and started a Second World War that brave patriot soldiers in this country brought to a successful end.

FDR moved a step closer by pushing his “Second Bill of Rights” in 1944 that was designed to promise all things to everybody in a land that was founded on nothing of the sort.

47 years ago LBJ promised his “Great Society” would eliminate poverty and push towards equality of outcomes for all. His major spending programs (Social Security is where much of that cash came from) would also improve education and eliminate urban blight. How’s that workin’ fer ya? The lock box on Social Security was busted, money gone, and our inner cities are dying, or dead.

Here are the words of President Johnson in 1964 while making his pitch for “the Great Society.”

“We are going to assemble the best thought and broadest knowledge from all over the world to find these answers. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of conferences and meetings–on the cities, on natural beauty, on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. From these studies, we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society.”

Hummmm. Sound familiar?

Of course, today elitists in Washington DC have hit booster button on these failed plans of the past and like the monarchy in Great Britain, they will not hear the cries of the people. The current president believes that social engineering will save us all, while history and today’s facts show the opposite.

We don’t have 100 years to turn this mess around. Great strides were made in November 2010 to send the message that We the People will demand government allow individual Liberty and practice fiscal responsibility. In a sentence, that is the movement that is inspiring this nation today and it frightens monarchy and elitists alike. I include the activist old media in that group as well.

As Paine said, we cannot leave this to future generations.

The time has found us.