“How do you think America would have looked under the anti-federalists and the Democratic Republicans if they’d imposed their vision?”
In general - a weaker and smaller central gov’t. But here - from a recent post:
“... I’m satisfied with the Natural Law base of the Constitution - just not the violations that have taken it to where we are now. There’s no ‘piece of paper’ that can stop that though - nothing in the Articles of Confederation or any amendments that can’t be ignored by people in power. Term limits which is anti-libertarian and in a sense anti-free speech is likely the only thing that _could_ effect the change needed and even then the citizenry would have to be much more educated on the philosophy than they are now and constantly on watch... er... eternally vigilant.”
Great thoughts and I agree with you on term limits, they’re not the cure.
The cure for ignorance is education. That said, I think Hamilton effectively refutes the idea that government would have stayed “pure” and small under the anti-federalists, especially without the Constitution uniting us all.
I’m going to start posting the Federalist Papers. Scalia challenges us to read all 85 and I’d like to take that challenge along with fellow FReepers. Would you like me to ping you when I post it tomorrow?