Why Thomas Paine would shoot Donald Trump if he were alive today (Part 1 of 3)

Written by Igor Goldkind

Yes, indeed that’s a provocative title; but this ain’t click-bait my friends. This is the real deal. If Thomas Paine was alive today, he’d be in the nation’s capital with a pistol waiting for the #FakePresident. Of course, he’d be waiting a long time considering as far as he knew the capital of these United States was in Philadelphia. I have a vision of old globalist Thomas standing outside Ben Franklin’s door, knocking as hard as he could, shouting “Benjamin!  Benjamin! Come out, our nation’s in trouble and it's much worse than the British.” Kind of like the scene in “Street Car Named Desire” where Marlon Brando is standing outside Stella’s window in the pouring rain in his soaked white T-Shirt.

Marlon Brando would have made a good Thomas Paine in the film, the graphic novel and the computer game but this doesn't answer the question embedded in the title of this diatribe. Why would Thomas Paine if he were alive today, track down Donald Trump and put a bullet in the back of his head? In principle this would require Donald to be on his knees, facing away from Thomas with his tiny hands wrapped around the back of his head. I suppose you, dear reader, are ‘en-titled’ to an answer as to the why and the wherefore; but stay with me as we savor the moment. The ultimate retribution of history: to be shot in the back of  the head by one of the Founders of this revolutionary nation, ironically with a pistol no less. One that Thomas didn’t have to register or submit to a background check to acquire from the antique pistols and muskets booth at the gun show a couple blocks away.

So before Thomas pulls the trigger and the tiny lead ball propels from the pistol’s mouth through his dense skull and lodges somewhere in the soft tissue that Donald referred to as his “brain,” let’s pause and assess the situation. Let’s skip over the time travel details as to how Thomas Paine got from the late 18th century to the early 21st. We’ll leave it to the graphic novel to explain that bit; him jumping a little over two centuries in time. Although we really don’t have to figure out anything at all. Thomas Paine’s words, his ideas and his rebel spirit not only jumped but survived intact for more than two centuries within the soul of our national sovereignty. So if Thomas Paine were brought back from the dead by some mysterious force, it could only be due to his words, his ideas and the nation he fought for being under threat.

And that, my reader, is precisely the point being made by my title and the words you are reading now.  Today, not even two decades into the 21st century, the essential values that built this nation, this American experiment by a motley crew of post-enlightenment landowners, orators, tradesmen and inventors is at risk of being destroyed. Not by Trump himself, you realize. But by Us, by We the People in our impotent complacency to stop him. We are not revolutionaries, we are the revolution Thomas and his friends dreamt, drew the blueprints for, and built on top of the hot blood that soaked the green countryside of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Carolina, whose names are only possible because of the stubborn bravery of these idealists, these socialists, these men of vision that had the hubris to build a nation founded not by the right of kings or church or even the wealthy, but by the enlightenment values of liberty, justice and freedom. 

These values of course aren’t just American, although they are the foundation stones of our democracy.  Thomas Paine author of “Common Sense,” “The Age of Reason” and “The Rights of Man” whose titles alone reveal the nature of his philosophy: to build a nation on reason not religious superstition. It’s not that Thomas Paine didn’t believe in the divine, he just believed in reason more: “It is by the exercise of reason that man can discover God. Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of understanding anything.”

Later, as a member of the French Senate, Paine would lend his hand to writing the Jean-Jacques Rousseau version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789, along with Thomas Jefferson. Rousseau’s Rights of Man became the basis of the UN Human Rights Charter as well as the EU Human Rights initiative. So next time you hear some jackass complaining about liberals going on and on about Human Rights you might want to mention that they’re disrespecting the  Founding Fathers, two of whom (Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine) contributed to the declaration.

In fact, Universal Human Rights is the soul not only of our Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence, the UN Charter and the adopted law of all members of the European Union. Human Rights is the one thing that Donald Trump can’t abide because he has dedicated his life to the accruement of power for its own sake. Trump really isn’t that bothered by actual money in spite of his public persona. What he is dedicated to is what money buys: people, power and governance; and this is exactly where we have gone astray from the origins of our nation. We have handed our own governance over to banks, corporate interests and the uber-affluent who can afford to buy a congressman or a president.   

Mueller’s investigation will very shortly reveal the origins of the money that bought Trump his presidency. We know already that the NRA contributed 30 million dollars early in his campaign. Do you remember that lie about how Trump said he was incorruptible because he could afford to fund his own campaign? I know, I know, it’s hard to remember all the lies Trump has spouted.

Do you know why the Truth is better than a lie?

Because it’s easier to remember.

Continue reading:  Part 2 of 3.

Check out more writing from the author here:
https://igorgoldkind.wordpress.com/