The Study Of Thomas Paine’s Political Thought And Its Spread In North America

Thomas Paine is a famous thinker and statesman during the period of the Independent war in North America. He was active in the North American revolution, and proposed the clear political theory which cut off the contact with the British Empire completely, to realize the independence of North America. He slammed the British monarchy, hereditary system, advocated natural rights; everyone is equal, wished to establish a universal, thorough, universal democratic republic. These political thought demands a great fit for the freedom and equality ideas throughout North America before the War of Independence. There are several transmission channels to spread Paine’s political thought, such as Paine’s own relentless publicity, the attention and support of the elite, the penetration of social media and so on. As a result, Paine’s political thought was well publicized in North America, and became a political trend indicator of the North American. His political ideas awoke of the consciousness of national independence in North America and promoted the North American community abandoning previous ambivalence that wavering between "war" and "peace", directly choosing the revolution road that makes a clean break with the United Kingdom, and achieving national independence. Under the guidance and participation of Paine, North American community achieved national independence, and established the Republic of confederation.However, after the establishment of the United States of America, Paine totally disregards of U.S. domestic chaos, civil unrest and other serious social problems, continued to promote his idealized political views, advocated radical democracy, rebuked the authoritarian behavior of every kind. Faced with the reality of American society, the political ideology advocated by Paine looked out of place. To overcome the drawbacks of the confederation and build new political system, founding of the fine process gradually formed a more pragmatic concept of federalism, built a political structure with federalism to create an environment conducive to maintain the stability of the country, realized political stability of social order. At this point, Paine’s radical political ideas began to stay away from the mainstream of American political thought, increasingly be marginalized. The fate of Paine’s political thought is closely linked with social change in North America, What’s more, there is a gap between the ideal and non-operational inherent in his ideas and the realism inherent intellectual tradition of North America, but it is undeniable, his political ideology played a leading role in the North American independent process.