I'm in that group. Patrick Henry smelled a rat, and it still stinks. Nevertheless the plausibility of the Constitution was the veneer of it's appeal to the rule of law. I'm a big fan of the rule of law, I just don't think it can be achieved under a monopoly. Just like I don't think anything can be done well under a monopoly.

And I'm sure you're aware, but democracy as a non pejorative, was mostly a 20th century innovation. I shouldn't be pedantic on the point, but that was kinda the point of my post. In addition to the economic problems I sketched out in other comments, democracy necessarily implies immorality, and I would assert, it implies nihilism.

The tempting thing about the Constitution is it asserts immutable rules of the road, presumably based on morality, but allows for some use of extortion in certain cases of expediency, "for the common good".

In practice there is no limitation the Constitution placed on the feds that they have obeyed. They keep the power, but scoff at constraint.

The US has become a true democracy, devoid of any Constitutional constraint, and thus has become the junta that Hamilton always lusted for.

I also would like the piranha pool, but I think they would have gotten around that as well. Just slower.