Common Sense in 1776 and 2026

As we ring in 2026, the United States stands on the precipice of its 250th anniversary. This should be a moment of collective pride, a chance to reflect on a rare and enduring national experiment. Instead, many Americans wonder how the country can celebrate such an achievement at a time of deep division and relentless polarization. Our politics feel hostile, our institutions strained, and government and politics seem ever more present in the most intimate corners of our lives.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Paine offered answers that still resonate. In January 1776, Paine published Common Sense, the pamphlet that galvanized support for American independence. Paine did more than argue against the British monarchy; he articulated a vision of America rooted not in power or authority, but in people. His words remind us what the American experiment was meant to celebrate, and why it still belongs to all of us, regardless of our politics.

Paine warned against confusing society with government, “Some writers have so confounded society with government,” he wrote, “as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.” Society, Paine argued, is “produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”

That distinction matters, especially in an era when politics increasingly revolves around domination rather than governance. When our focus centers on capturing government power in order to punish our opponents, division follows naturally. But when Americans unite as a society, seeking prosperity and progress, something very different happens. As Paine put it, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”

The American experiment rests on this insight. The founders did not design a system of limited government because they believed this would make government inherently virtuous, but because a restrained state creates space for individuals to flourish. Liberty allows people to innovate, build, cooperate, and disagree without fear. Paine captured this truth when he argued that a nation’s success is “owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government.”

The Constitution and the institutions it created remain precious, but not as ends in themselves. They matter because of what they make possible. America’s prosperity, strength, and global influence did not emerge from institutional design alone. They grew out of generations of free people exercising creativity, ambition, and hard work. The founding generation’s greatest gift to posterity was not a perfect government but liberty. That liberty allowed America to become greater than the sum of its parts, even as the country struggled, often imperfectly, to live up to its ideals.

Paine understood that the stakes extended beyond the colonies themselves. “The cause of America,” he wrote, “is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” The American Revolution did not simply replace one ruler with another. It challenged the assumption that authority must flow from bloodlines, divine right, or force. Instead, it advanced the radical idea that free people, governed by law, could chart their own future.

That is why American pride has never flowed from politicians or the government of the day. Our loyalty runs deeper than administrations and elections. It lies in the national experiment itself, an experiment launched by the Declaration of Independence and sustained by the Constitution, but carried forward daily by all Americans. Paine captured this idea with clarity when he asked, “But where says some is the King of America? I’ll tell you Friend, . . .  in America THE LAW IS KING.”

As the country prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, America’s greatness does not rise or fall with today’s partisan battles. It does not depend on whether our preferred candidates hold office. It depends on a society of free individuals, each striving in their own way for a better tomorrow. That shared endeavor, more than any policy or politician, is what truly makes America great.