The Anti-Federalists were those who were opposed to numerous sections and structure of the new constitution that was drafted by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. They saw threats to the freedoms and liberties of individual citizens as well as a loss of local government by municipalities and states to an imperial centralized government.
They were advocates of “states rights”, with most of the powers of governing residing with them and filtered down to the local level. Many of their concerns of a loss of voice by citizens and the political castration of state’s rights and powers have come to pass. The oppressiveness of our tax system, an all-powerful central government dictating to the states how to conduct their affairs, a supreme court that legislates instead of applying the law with no redress by citizens (thus effectively being unfettered by any kind of “check and balance” by the legislative and executive branches) are among just a few of their arguments against the creation of a centralized federal government as laid out in our Constitution.
Indeed, it was because of them that immediately after the adoption of the Constitution that the first ten amendments were passed – what we commonly refer to as our “Bill of Rights” and to which we appeal most frequently as we attempt to stave off the erosion of our individual liberties by the leviathan that our federal government has become.
It will be my aim on this blog to champion their position on individual and local/state rights and liberties in opposition to our current slide into a fascist/socialist tyranny so that all future generations of Americans will be able to enjoy their “certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
-Epaminondas
