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Est. 1854 • Center-Right / Conservative

Anti-Federalist vs. Republican Party

The Republican Party claims to champion limited government, individual liberty, and free markets. In practice, they expand executive power, grow the military-industrial complex, subsidize corporate allies, and use federal authority to impose social policies on states that disagree with them. Their "small government" philosophy applies only when it is politically convenient.

Issue-by-Issue Breakdown

01

Federal Power

Republican Position

Selectively expand executive authority. Use federal power to override state decisions on immigration, drug policy, and social issues they disagree with.

Anti-Federalist Position

Consistently decentralize power regardless of the issue. If a community wants to legalize something or ban something, that is their sovereign right.

Republicans claim to support states' rights but sent federal agents into Portland, threatened to withhold funding from sanctuary cities, and used executive orders to bypass Congress on immigration. States' rights only when it suits them.

02

Surveillance & Security

Republican Position

Expand surveillance powers under the banner of national security. Authored and championed the Patriot Act. Support FISA courts, warrantless wiretapping, and expanded NSA authority.

Anti-Federalist Position

Abolish the Patriot Act. Shut down warrantless surveillance. The Fourth Amendment is not negotiable, not even for national security theater.

The Republican Party created the modern surveillance state after 9/11. The Patriot Act, the TSA, the DHS — all Republican inventions that have never caught a single terrorist but have violated the rights of millions of Americans.

03

Corporate Influence

Republican Position

Embrace corporate lobbying as "free speech." Citizens United was championed by Republican-appointed justices. Cut corporate taxes while raising the deficit.

Anti-Federalist Position

Corporations are not people. Money is not speech. Break the corporate-state fusion that allows billionaires to purchase legislation.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gave corporations a permanent tax cut while individual tax cuts expire. The national debt increased by $7.8 trillion under Trump. This is not fiscal conservatism — it is corporate socialism.

04

Healthcare

Republican Position

Repeal the ACA with no replacement plan. Oppose any public option. Protect pharmaceutical company profits and insurance industry monopolies.

Anti-Federalist Position

Community health cooperatives. Local control over healthcare delivery. No federal mandates. No insurance middlemen. No pharmaceutical price-fixing.

Republicans had unified government from 2017-2019 and could not pass a single healthcare bill. They have no healthcare policy — only opposition to Democratic healthcare policy.

05

Education

Republican Position

Push school choice and vouchers — which funnel public money to private and religious institutions. Increasingly use state power to ban books and mandate specific curriculum content.

Anti-Federalist Position

Full local school board autonomy. No state mandates on curriculum. No federal mandates. Communities decide what their children learn.

Florida banned 1,600 books in a single year. Texas rewrote history textbooks to minimize slavery. This is not educational freedom — it is replacing one form of centralized control with another.

06

Electoral Reform

Republican Position

Protect the two-party system. Gerrymander districts. Pass voter ID laws that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Fight ranked-choice voting.

Anti-Federalist Position

Open primaries. Ranked-choice voting. End gerrymandering through independent redistricting commissions. Make it easier for every American to vote and for every party to compete.

Republicans in multiple states have passed laws specifically designed to make it harder for third parties to appear on ballots. They do not want competition. They want a captive electorate.

07

Gun Rights

Republican Position

Claim to support the Second Amendment while passing bump stock bans and supporting red flag laws when politically convenient.

Anti-Federalist Position

The Second Amendment is absolute. The founders intended an armed citizenry as a check on government tyranny. No federal gun registry. No federal restrictions.

Trump banned bump stocks by executive order. Republican governors have signed red flag laws. They use the Second Amendment as a fundraising tool but compromise on it when the political calculus changes.

08

Military & Foreign Policy

Republican Position

Massively increase defense spending. Support regime change abroad. Maintain 800+ overseas military bases. Fund the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about.

Anti-Federalist Position

Constitutional militia model. Close all overseas bases. End all foreign entanglements. The military exists to defend American soil, not to police the planet.

Eisenhower — a Republican president and five-star general — warned about the military-industrial complex in 1961. His own party ignored him completely.

The Verdict

The Republican Party is the party of selective liberty. They want government out of your business but inside your bedroom, your library, and your doctor's office. They are not conservative — they are corporatist authoritarians wearing a Gadsden flag.