Showing posts with label Executive power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Executive power. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Thomas Paine and the Despotic Danger of the Unaccountable Presidency

by Nomad


A Nation Turning Its Back on Its Own Glory

The last years of Thomas Paine, one of America's first and most outspoken intellectuals, were bitter ones. The American political activist and philosopher had left in the spring of 1787, bound for France.
A strong supporter for the anti-royalist side, he was caught up in the lethal throes of the revolution there. Charged with crimes against the state, Paine was arrested in December 1793 and was imprisoned for a year in Luxembourg Prison (formerly a palace.)
His survival was, by his own account, based solely on sheer luck.