The Question of Modern Antifederalism: A Search for Core Antifederalist Beliefs Amongst the Candidates for the Presidency in 2008

In the 2008 Presidential election there is a possibility of a renewal in the presence of thought and core constitutional beliefs of the Antifederalist party as they would exist in the modern era, but there needs to be some study done in order to determine which candidates, if any, would closer match the ideal set by the model modern Antifederalist. In this study, the author performed a survey of core constitutional beliefs on political actives from both of the major political parties at their respective California State Conventions. Based on the findings of those surveys, the republicans and the democrats were shown to have a remarkable similarity between their core constitutional beliefs, and the Republican hopeful Ron Paul was found to be the one candidate whose supporters most closely matched the modern Antifederalist. As a corollary to this study, the author also found that many political actives had a difficult time envisioning a government that was shaped by their opinions of what government should be. Many of those polled even seemed to lack an opinion of their own and would simply answer with whatever the established state of things was. These findings suggest that while there may be some who share the Antifederalist mindset, the idea of personal control of government may be beyond the thoughts of modern political actives.