,
6 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
1. Reading Paine's Common Sense today and stumbled upon a passage about hereditary power that put me in mind of this article about our current executive and the origins of his family's wealth and power. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
2. "Could we take off the dark covering of antiquity & trace them to their 1st rise, we should find the 1st of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang; whose savage manners or pre-eminence in subtlety obtained him the title of chief among plunderers."
3. "...and who by increasing in power and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenceless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions."
4. Later Paine dismisses those who worship monarchs despite their horrific origins. "A French bastard [Wm. the Conqueror] landing with an armed banditti & establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original."
5. "However, it is needless to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right; if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass and the lion, and welcome. I shall neither copy their humility, nor disturb their devotion."
6. Promiscuously worshipping the ass and the lion...I can't think of a better depiction of MAGA political culture these days. 
