![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screen-Shot-2026-01-21-at-10.42.53-PM.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe publication of \u201cCommon Sense\u201d by Thomas Paine in January 1776 has long been recognized as a pivotal step towards American independence, as this pamphlet articulated the reasons for the new colonial leaders to make a decisive break with the English crown and establish an independent United States. Fifty years ago, the 200th anniversary of this event was commemorated as part of the Bicentennial, with articles drawing connections between Paine\u2019s ideas and the Declaration of Independence almost seven months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Ford sought to make a similar connection in his State of the Union speech, delivered on January 19, 1976, when he evoked Paine\u2019s most famous statement from Common Sense: \u201cHistory and experience tells us that moral progress cannot come in comfortable and in complacent times, but out of trial and out of confusion. Tom Paine aroused the troubled Americans of 1776 to stand up to the times that try men’s souls because the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.\u201d Editorial columnists were not impressed by this attempt to connect a revolutionary idealogue with the constraints on presidential power of the 1970s. An editorial in the Courier Journal (Louisville, KY) declared \u201cit\u2019s disappointing that an address delivered at the onset of America\u2019s third century should confine itself to short term prescriptions spliced between occasional patriotic exhortations that are about as memorable as yesterday\u2019s basketball scores.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cartoonists seized on these comparisons to illustrate Ford\u2019s seeming desperation to appear influential at a time when he couldn\u2019t solve basic problems of affordability. The Roanoke Times cartoon on January 25, 1976 included two panels suggesting that Ford was play-acting when he invoked the words of Paine in the State of the Union. A widely circulated cartoon by Oliphant contrasted the inspirational words of Paine with the reality of an elderly couple dealing with everyday expenses (Minneapolis Star, January 23 1976)<\/p>\n\n\n\n A cartoon in the Huntsville Times on January 12, 1976 approached the resonance of Paine\u2019s words from a different perspective, contrasting the inspirational language read from the pamphlet with the realities found in nature. The latter is perhaps more in keeping with the animating spirit of the Bikecentennial, as the desire to find inspiration along the rural roads of America offered a unique way to celebrate 200 years of American independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n January 15, 2026 by Tom Ewing The publication of \u201cCommon Sense\u201d by Thomas Paine in January 1776 has long been recognized as a pivotal step towards American independence, as this pamphlet articulated the reasons for the new colonial leaders to make a decisive break with the English crown and establish an independent United States. Fifty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1327,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screen-Shot-2026-01-21-at-10.47.42-PM.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screen-Shot-2026-01-21-at-10.51.17-PM-1024x804.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screen-Shot-2026-01-21-at-10.45.16-PM-1024x373.png\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"