The difference between Tom Paine and Edmund Burke, between a radical and a whig, was that Paine had no sense of history. His views were rooted in his own experience, in his self-education and Paine rejected everything that came before that.
Excellent observation, RobbyS!
Though he wrote Common Sense, thereby helping to inspire the American Revolution, his attitude and sentiments seem to have been more aligned with the French one. And we all know how that turned out.
Edmund Burke was a conservative in every sense of the word. Thus the historical record was of indispensable value to him, along with the notion that there is such a thing as a more or less constant, fixed "human nature" that does not vary over time. I'm pretty sure Paine rejected that latter notion.