"PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
"As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
(keep reading...)
"The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and [obliterating] the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the
AUTHOR
"P.S. Who the Author of this production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, that he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1776."
The preceding excerpt was from the introduction to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.
Those of you who didn't get shafted by America's wretched education system know that the impact of Common Sense on history cannot be overstated. (It's even in the book The 16 Most Important Books of History.) As Rousseau would put it, Paine created "the appropriate necessary agent for the public force to unify and put it to work according to the directions of the general will." Creating "public enlightenment" resulted in "the union of the understanding and the will in the social body, hence the precise concourse of the parts, and finally the maximum force of the whole."
In a sense, Common Sense was the quintessential PR achievement in terms of its power to resonate with the masses of disgruntled colonists in order to galvanize their collective ire and convert those who had preferred to acquiesce to the King's tyranny. The modern day opposite of Common Sense is the banner "FREE SEX;" a cheap and silly stunt used to lure the common denominator into looking at whatever it is the marketer is hawking. Karl Rove is the modern day opposite of Thomas Paine: the ultimate cynic who has a keen talent for using propaganda to lead (fool) the lowest common denominator. In fact, last night I learned from a Mike Malloy truth seeker that Rove's life before politics was as a direct marketer who had mastered the art of manipulating the hoi polloi purely for profit.
As an idealist, I think it's not a stretch to believe that our side is capable of out doing Turd Blossom in the battle for public opinion.
Assuming enough individuals (or a few rich ones) will be willing to pitch in for the bounty, I'd like to propose a $100,000 reward to the first person who writes a 1000 word essay that manages to get Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilley to call for the resignation of Bush/Cheney. Since they're more likely to commit hari kari than to acquiesce to anything that would put President Pelosi in the White House, the prize money will still be awarded even if they will only concede the point with the qualifier, "...as long as President Pelosi agrees to pick Mr. X as her VP and then resign."
UPDATE: I want to stress that the poll is for who Rightwing pundits would be amenable to, not who you'd most prefer. And not to sound contentious, but if you pick Hillary or Pelosi or Gore or Edwards or Kucinich, please explain how you came to that conclusion despite conventional wisdom.