Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ at 250: A Warning for 2026 America

The Founding Father's words 250 years ago speak directly to us today as we confront a would-be absolute monarch far more dangerous and un-American than George III.

Robert S. McElvaine is a historian and the author of 11 books, including The Times They were a-Changin’: 1964—The Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn. Subscribe to his Musings & Amusings Substack.

“Here is idolatry even without a mask: And he who can calmly hear and digest such doctrine, hath forfeited his claim to rationality an apostate from the order of manhood and ought to be considered as one who hath not only given up the proper dignity of man, but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals, and contemptibly crawls through the world like a worm.”

This seemingly perfect description of “Republican” Donald Trump acolytes in his regime and Congress in 2026 was written two-and-a-half centuries ago by Thomas Paine.

Two-hundred-and-fifty years ago last week, a pamphlet written by “an ENGLISHMAN” (Thomas Paine) ignited the people of the British colonies along the Atlantic in North America, from Maine (then a part of Massachusetts) to Georgia to support declaring independence.

Over its first six months, 150,000 copies of Common Sense spread around the colonies. That was about six percent of the population, which would be about 20 million copies today.

I have read portions of Common Sense many times in the past, but I had never read the whole document. I decided to do so for the 250th anniversary. I obtained the audiobook for the price of 99 cents and listened to it while exercising. Listening to it being read seems appropriate, as that was one of the primary ways that so much of the colonial population received its message. It was read aloud in pubs as patrons enjoyed a pint of ale or a dram of rum. (I didn’t partake during my exercise listening.)

Paine made the case that monarchy is a terrible form of government and repeatedly spoke of the danger of unlimited power in the hands of someone like Trump. An example: He said the man who becomes king is likely to be:

[N]othing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners of pre-eminence in subtilty obtained him the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions.

As we are currently seeing with Trump, Paine warned, “in absolute monarchies the whole weight of business civil and military lies on the King.”

“The Foolish, the Wicked, and the Incompetent’

And how about this:

[Monarchy] opens a door to the foolish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent. … their minds are early poisoned by importance … frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any.

This, too, sounds all-too familiar to Americans in 2026:

The same national misfortune happens when a king worn out with age and infirmity enters the last stage of human weakness … the public becomes a prey to every miscreant who can tamper successfully with the follies.

A ‘Crowned Ruffian’

And who among us would not agree with Paine when he wrote, “Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived”?

“Crowned ruffian” is a description that fits Donald J. Trump as well as a short-fingered glove.

Paine refers to “the King and his parasites” and says, “as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully.”

Common Sense 2026

I’ll continue with excerpts from Common Sense in which I substitute, in brackets, names and terms from today to show how well Paine’s warnings in 1776 align with our dire situation 250 years later.

[A]ll those who espouse the doctrine of [working with Trump], may be included within the following descriptions. Interested men, who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see …

It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scenes of present sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us a few moments to [Minneapolis]; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust …

But if you have [seen what they are doing], and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.

And pay particular heed to these words:

I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is not in the power of [Trump or Miller] to conquer America, if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity.

… before the fatal [seventh of January 2026], but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of [Mar-a-Lago] for ever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of Father of His People, can unfeelingly hear of [her murder], and composedly sleep with [her] blood upon his soul.

‘An Inveterate Enemy of Liberty … a Thirst for Arbitrary Power’

And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or is he not, a proper man to say to [this nation], “You shall make no laws but what I please.”

How about this for a description of Trump’s outrageous imperialism?

Monarchical governments, it is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation to enterprizing [sic] ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a rupture with foreign powers, in instances where a republican government, by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.”

‘In America the Law Is King’

… in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.

To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them.A few more relevant gems:

A few more relevant gems:

“O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”

‘The Trembling Duplicity of a Spaniel’

Here’s one of my favorites. It brings to mind Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and so many other “Republican” officeholders, as unwell as cowardly corporate leaders, law firms and universities today:

“The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel.”

‘A Wilful Audacious Libel against the Truth’

And how nicely this Paine comment in the appendix to the third edition of Common Sense fits the speeches of wannabe King Donald:

The [King’s] speech, if it may be called one, is nothing better than a wilful audacious libel against the truth, the common good, and the existence of mankind; and is a formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices to the pride of tyrants.

Let Paine’s call to us across two-and-a-half centuries conclude with this:

“O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!”

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