Paine was a ne'er-do-well permanent revolutionary - sort of a proto-Trotsky of his time (his substantive economic policy views, for eg, were insane) - who failed at life in Britain, relocated to the American colonies, and spent his life waging a personal war v. Britain and the British system. He went on to demonize many of America’s Founding Fathers as traitors to the Revolution (until the Jacobins arrested him and he needed their aid). 

Past time for Americans to reassess Paine and remove his halo.