Thomas Paine entered the Grand Ballroom at the K-State Student Union in his popular YouTube.com persona to a diverse crowd of students, faculty, veterans, community members and children. Dressed to the letter in colonial garb, with fiery passion spilling from every pore, Bob Basso had the crowd jumping before he ever spoke a word.

Hosted by the Manhattan Tea Party, Basso's lecture at K-State was introduced by the emcee for the evening, Matthew Pennell, freshman in open option.

After a ten-minute video clipping to set the mood with government debt and a previous Basso performance, "Open Letter to the President," Basso entered to a wild standing ovation.

Immediately, taking the podium with force, Basso began the speech by uniting the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance. "We the people, silent no more," was his cry, a plea to unite Americans in the "second, peaceful American Revolution."

Basso pled his case to the room, but not without first identifying what he found to be one of the largest issues facing America – labeling.

"I do not represent any party ... there's no right wing or left wing on my body," Basso said.

A return to common sense has been Basso's principle since the beginning. His call to action?

"Those who call patriotism extremism, your days are numbered ... When the people fear the government, there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people, it is called liberty," Basso said. "Get rid of this hyphen American title. It shouldn't be white-American or black-American or gay/lesbian-American ... people are screaming for unity but [are] doing everything they can to divide ... it is time we became just plain American."

Toward the end of his speech, the crowd, fired up by Basso, rose in its entirety to face Washington D.C. and shouted, as per Basso's request, "Enough is enough! I'm mad as hell and I'm taking my country back!"

With followings from Alaska to Ohio, from Broadway to Kansas wheat fields, Basso is making an impact.

"I got to talk to Mr. Basso for awhile before the event tonight, and even as a regular person, he is just as persuasive as when [he acts as] Thomas Paine," said Doug Shane, junior in animal sciences and industry and president of the College Republicans. "He has so much passion and is always fired up. I think that he really instills that we're all Americans, and that gives us a unifying identity."