*PING*
I have to go back and read again, but I think that Paine’s discussion of government put differences between British and American sensibilities in fairly stark contrast, and, in a way, showed the evolution in thinking from a sort of British moral relativism (what with the King being able to dissolve parliaments at will)to an American moral absolutism about the importance of individual liberty. No mistake should be made about both our ability to change and how liberty has been eroded in America.
Point made, I have to go back and figure out just what John Adams was complaining about in Thomas Paine.