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Carl L. McWilliams's avatar

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God". James Madison

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Liz LaSorte's avatar

And, as prescient as our founders were, the Constitution has failed to restrain government the way we think it was intended, and the Anti-Federalist saw it coming. So, we can argue that we don’t follow the Constitution (duh), but in countless essays in the “Anti-Federalist” Papers, they warned us repeatedly that creating a central government would become too big, too corrupt, would create forever wars and cause national division because of our vast size. The sooner we all acknowledge this, the sooner we can figure out a better way for our children and their children and future generations.

The Constitution was to protect us from the tyranny of the majority, but what about the tyranny of the minority – as in corporatocracy/oligarchy that “rules” us now?

What if we could revise Article II to be a diplomatic post, representing delegates chosen by state legislatures and delete Article III and create a 50 state justice tribunal system to address any intrastate issues and use Thomas Jefferson’s idea, “My general plan would be to make the states one as to every thing connected with foreign nations, and several as to every thing purely domestic.” That would be real Federalism. Bonus is that we would have no federal elections! https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/a-modest-proposal-part-iii-what-were?r=76q58

“A Farmer” discusses 18th century “newspeak” of the term “Anti-Federalist” in Anti-Federalist #3 “:…The term federalist is therefore improperly applied to themselves, by the friends and supporters of the proposed constitution. This abuse of language does not help the cause; every degree of imposition serves only to irritate but can never convince. They are national men, and their opponents, or at least a great majority of them, are federal, in the only true and strict sense of the word.”

So, the Federalists were really nationalists and the “Anti-Federalists” were the Real Federalists but they are forever regulated in history as the “anti-constitution” people = bad.

Please don’t forget that we OWE our cherished Bill of Rights to the so-called “Anti-Federalists.” In Federalist # 84, Alexander Hamilton said that a “bill of rights is not only unnecessary… but dangerous.” Get in the Ring, Alexander Hamilton! https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/get-in-the-ring-thomas-jefferson?r=76q58

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