45 at 235

OK. This is one where you need to go RTWT:

Were the Founders Democrats? | Power Line: "We could go on, but you get the picture. It would be easy to demonstrate from the speeches and writings of Washington, Hamilton and the other Federalists that their views were much closer to those of present-day conservatives, most especially including Tea Party members, than to those of present-day liberals like Dane Smith. One could write a PhD dissertation on the subject–someone probably has–but let’s just close with a couple of quick quotes. This one is from Federalist 45:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

There's actually a kernel of truth in Dane Smith's argument in that the concerns of the Anti-Federalists have largely come to pass. But it was because the Federalist Papers have also been flushed down the memory hole -- not because they have been upheld. We are now 235 light years from either the Federalist or Anti-Federalist vision.