Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors (Paine). Democracy, the republic, voting, the Supreme Court, debate, etc. are no longer foreign concepts -- the great American "experiment" of 1776 still exists, so contemporary readers do not find issues of individual liberty and law to be either controversial or strange. Common Sense was a seminal event in the way the entire framework of the new government, and the Constitution were formed. "In short, Independence is the only BOND that can tie and keep us together" (Paine).

The Constitution, however, remains the seminal document with which the country is governed and laws interpreted. Some even call it a "living" document because it is continually reinterpreted and amended...

That a document such of this could have been so popular at the time that its story spawned debate well after the Revolutionary War, is almost unheard of in American popular history, much less 250 years ago. It is just this revolutionary spirit, this legacy of a combination of marketing, persuasion and strength of argument that allow Common Sense to be read and understood within the contemporary arena just as it was done by a small group of the middle class during those trying years in the 1770s.
Works Cited

King, R. And E. Begler, Common Sense for the Modern Era. San Diego, CA: San Diego University Press, 2007.

Paine, T. "Common Sense." n.d. Google.Com. April 2011 .