The title is somewhat deceptive as the original Federalist Party circa 1800 believed in a more centralized national government than their Democratic rivals. Nevertheless, this article in Slate makes explicit an open secret, that the parts of the country that vote for the ostensibly anti-federalist party today, the Democrats, subsidize the part of the country that votes for the federalist party, the Republicans.

The data flies in the face of received notions about wealth, partisan affiliation, and dependence on the federal government. The five largest recipients of federal largesse in 2002 were all non-Northeast states: New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, Mississippi, and West Virginia (four of which went Republican in 2000). The states shortchanged the most were New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Massachusetts—four of five of which are in the Northeast, and four of which voted Democratic in 2000. In fact, when you look at the voting behavior of states—based on 2000 per capita income—11 of the 13 wealthiest states voted for Gore while 15 of the poorest 17 states voted for Bush.

The Republican officer corps might defend this country, but much of their paycheck comes from the Democratic northeast....