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The American Crises - Pt 1 · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

• 0:11
  This is plausibly Live, the official podcast of The Dave
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  Bowman Show. These are the times that try
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  men's souls. When Thomas Paine wrote those
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  words in December 1776, the Revolution was hanging by a
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  thread. Washington's army was cold,
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  hungry, and losing faith. Men were deserting by the
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  hundreds. Independence looked like a dream
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  fading in the snow. Paine's pamphlet The American
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  Crisis was written to light a fire under a dying 'cause he
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  called out the summer soldier and the sunshine Patriot, those
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  who supported liberty only when it was easy.
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  Real courage, he said, shows itself when everything is
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  falling apart. He reminded Americans that the
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  price of freedom is struggle and that hardship gives liberty its
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  value. The harder the conflict, Payne
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  wrote, the more glorious the triumph.
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  His message was blunt. Quitting now would prove that
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  the Revolution was never about principle, only comfort.
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  Washington knew exactly what he had in those words.
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  He had them read aloud to his troops before the daring
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  Christmas attack at Trenton. Those ragged men crossing the
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  frozen Delaware carried Payne's challenge in their hearts, proof
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  that resolve can outlast despair.
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  Payne's words still echo today. Every generation faces its own
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  times that try men's souls. They may not come with muskets
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  or redcoats, but they test our courage all the same.
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  The question remains, will we stand firm when the cause seems
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  lost or retreat when the weather turns cold?
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  Paynes Challenge is timeless. Liberty belongs not to the fair
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  weather friend, but to the one who endures the storm.