“The Antis had plenty of time and wrote volumes in protest, yet couldn’t come up with an alternative to the Constitution. They illustrated the ease of criticizing and the difficulty of creating.”
Wait a second, there was a constitution in place at the time. You remember, the one the Constitution illegally (according to it) superceded, called the Articles of Confederation. Which may not have been perfect, but the anti-federalist were under no compunction to come up with yet another system. I happen to think the case against the AofC is vastly overstated, but no matter how far we go in agreeing with its critics it didn’t fail. There was a national government in existence when the Constitution was written. Nothing’s to say it had to be replaced.
There was a confederation on paper, a series of treaties among independent republics. Said republics blew off their “constitutional” duties and responsibilities. They did not pay their taxes, they ignored the treaty of peace w/Britain, which was getting Americans killed on the frontier, and after 1783 hardly bothered to send delegates to Congress at all. What remained of the Confederation was dissolving from neglect. We owed an incredible sum of money and interest to repay war debt, but by 1787 did not have a dime in the treasury. We had no currency, no commercial laws, no navigation treaties with other countries. Western VA and NC counties over the mountains were cozying up to Spain. English troops occupied forts in the Northwest territory they were supposed to relinquish by treaty.
“the one the Constitution illegally (according to it) superceded”
So the people did not have the right to modify their government? What did we do in 1776?
Antis were appointed as delegates to the Philly convention. It was their duty to improve the Articles. About half couldn't be bothered to attend, the most famous being Patrick Henry. The convention determined early on that the Articles could not be improved to attain their goals of regulating commerce, navigation laws, national defense and adequate tax collection.
The grownups in attendance dealt with the situation.