Peaceful Political Revolution in America

I want to begin the Peaceful Political Revolution in America podcast with a discussion about Thomas Paine. His ideas, more than any other American, shaped the destiny of not only 1 revolution, but 3. You might say Thomas Paine is the father of peaceful political revolution. It's difficult to overstate how important Paine's message was to our nation, and to Americans, today. His legacy may be a bit obscure to most Americans, but my guest Gary Berton will bring you all up to date on the essential Thomas Paine. Gary is the President of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association in New Rochelle. He is retired from Iona College where he was the Coordinator of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and an adjunct professor in Political Science teaching courses on Thomas Paine.  If you want to understand what political revolution in America means, you'll want to get to know Thomas Paine, and for that, we need to have a conversation with Gary Berton.Gary, welcome to the Peaceful Political Revolution in America podcast. How are things in New Rochelle?

Hi and welcome to the Peaceful political Revolution in America podcast. I'm your host, John Mulkins.If you were following the presidential election of 2020 as I was, you will most likely recall the phrase "political revolution."  It was popularized by Bernie Sanders and it became synonymous with his campaign.  Bernie didn't win the nomination of course, and it appears that his aspirations for a political revolution have been more or less restrained, so if you're like me you're wondering what will happen to Bernie's call for political revolution? I have been informally studying the history of our constitution for the past 15 years I have been reading about people like Thomas Payne and James Madison George Washington Thomas Jefferson and James Wilson I've read quite a few good books on the topic of constitutions I've read democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.  I have also had the great pleasure to correspond on occasion with some of our nations top constitutional scholars  activists and political scientists, and one thing has really stuck out to me.  Although everyone I spoke to agreed on the basic history of our constitution something was being avoided.  There was a ghost in the room, and no one wanted to talk about it. I wondered, how could it be that these experts did not want to acknowledge something so obvious.  It was as if the ghost in the room made them all speechless, it had become taboo.  So I thought it would be very timely and important to share with you what I happen to be seeing and why it was so mysteriously invisible to everyone else.It's actually one of the most important things you probably don't know about revolutions and it might just didn't power you to change the world.  It turns out peaceful political revolution is the actual basis of our form of government.  You may recall a certain convention in 1787.  It was followed by a national debate. That was followed by a series of conventions, where representatives of the people voted on the question of whether or not to adopt the new Constitution. Our ancestors changed their political system of government in 1788.  They did it using their words and their pens, and it was the first peaceful political revolution in the world.  The question we may all have to soon answer is, will it be our last?