Adam Quirk

Like many thoughtful independent citizens, I never mark myself a decided voter before even hearing a candidate speak. The party politics that dominates our country for so long seems absurd to the analytical mind. Man or woman should take all things into account before making important decisions. But in a way it is an organized religion. Casting yourself as a democrat or republican takes much of the responsibility of being a voting citizen off your shoulders.  This way you can pursue other parts of your life more fully, like making money.

I read Thomas Paine's Common Sense last month for the first time six years. Common Sense was a pamphlet, not a book. At forty-seven pages, it's a very short read. I highly recommend it. Below are the main takeaways from Thomas Paine's pamphlet that I find relevant to our present situation in the United States.

1. Society is produced by our wants. Government is required by our wickedness. The former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections and social goals. The latter restrains our vices and evil weaknesses. Society in every state is a blessing, but government in even its best state is only a necessary evil. In its worst state it is an intolerable one. When we endure miseries by a government that we could expect to suffer from an individual, the pain is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

2. Government should not focus on today, but tomorrow. As guardians of the future, we cannot be happy knowing that our corrupted government is insufficient to ensure anything we want to pass on to the next generation. We ought to do the the work of repairing it, otherwise we misuse and dishonor our children. In order to know what to do, we should take our children in our arms and fix our sight a few years farther into life. That vision will show us a path that present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

3. "The king is an inveterate enemy to liberty, with a thirst for arbitrary power." This sounds to me like a description of most of the candidates for president.