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Off topic, slightly. Your tagline “antifederalists were right” brought to mind my discussion with my 13 year old daughter. Helping her with U.S. history homework and the discussion of Federalists and AntiFederalists.

It seems that the teacher, and many of the modern-day references equate the Federalists with Republicans, and the anti-Federalists with Democrats. At the time I can perhaps see that (if there were Dems and Pubs around!).

But today - I see the conservatives being the anti-feds, and the dems as the Feds and gave example and references to my daughter. My daughter agreed and tried to explain that in class to no avail. I told her not to worry about it. The dems view themselves as the champion of the free man, the worker, bringing equal rights to the small guy, etc. so they have their mind set on the “little guy”. However, they use the Big Guy (Big Government) to accomplish their goals - which to me makes them Federalists.

Or am I the one that is confused?

In terms of modern day, the teacher is nuts. I think in historical terms, one could say the Federalists became the Whigs who became the Republicans, and the Antifederalists became the Democrat-Republicans who became the Democrats. That's a simplification, but not without some justification.

But in terms of modern day, it makes no sense. Think about it, the Constitutional Convention was held in secret. The Federalists exceeded their authority in order to massively expand the power of the central government, and claimed that it must be passed or else catastrophe awaited. Who does that remind you of?

Meanwhile, the antifeds wanted to keep the states in control, did not want to exceed their authority, and distrusted the centralizing impulses of the Federalists. Who does that sound like?

But nowadays, basically, there are no antifederalists. The conservative movement is predominantly federalist in nature. It exalts the Constitution, which is a Federalist creation.

The closest thing to antifeds would be fringe libertarians, old South rebels, etc, but even they aren't really there. They want to believe that the Constitution, properly applied, supports their views. It doesn't.

The Constitution leads inevitably to where we are today. It is a centralizing document. It is about the consolidation of power. Look at the Hamilton and Madison quotes on my profile page for an inkling of what I mean.

But that's me. I'm extreme. The Federalists are too liberal for me. I would like to see the US go back to confederation, but I know that won't happen. We're stuck with big government. In short, I believe that the framers screwed the pooch.

Still trying to crystallize it. I would say that conservatism does hold many antifederalist positions, but they THINK that they are Federalist positions. They think the Constitution is about states' rights, when it's truly about squashing states' rights as much as was feasible. They think federalism is about decentralization, when the opposite is true. They think if only people implemented the Constitution correctly, the result would be, though they don''t use the word, antifederalist.

Go to my profile page, click the link to Brutus' essays and just read the first one for an overview, and it'll blow your mind. The antifeds are treated as a sideshow or villians, and the Framers are the supposed geniuses, but that's just because they won the political battle. Check it out and see who makes more sense--Publius or Brutus. One promised a rose garden, the other hit the nail on the head.

I am posting the minutes to the Convention each day this Spring and Summer, along with my observations and some bios on our Framers.

We have every reason to be proud of our heritage. Never before nor since did men sit down to form a government to secure the Natural Rights of its citizens.

The Convention got down to business on May 29, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2726699/posts.

You have only missed a few days. You can read in their own words why a new government was necessary.

Why rely on what others have to say about our Constitution when you can see for yourself?