The incoming conservative house members are going to insist upon a complete reading of the Constitution, according to The Washington Post.

The reading of the Constitution will occur on Jan. 6, one day after the swearing in of Speaker-designate John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). The 4,543-word document, including all 27 amendments, could be read aloud in just 30 minutes. But the exercise probably will last longer.

That might be a good idea, given incoming speaker John Boehner’s confusion between the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in a speech over a year ago, in which he was attempting to present himself as an angry populist before a large TeaParty crowd.

Not to mention progressive pundit Rachel Maddow’s confusion over whether the constitution has a preamble (which of course it does, as she stated later, correcting her own gaff.)

Mr. Boehner seemed to overlook that not only were the two documents different, but were separated by eleven years — twelve if you count the addition of the first amendments — the Bill of Rights.

Sandwiched between the two documents was our first constitution — the Articles of Confederation, wherein  “states’ rights” reigned supreme, and in which:

There was no tax base, no executive agencies or judiciary. The absence of tax base meant that there was no way to pay off state and national debts from the war years. In 1788, with the approval of Congress, the Articles were replaced by the United States Constitution and the new government began operations in 1789. Article in Wikipedia

The truth is that the our US Constitution was an educated second effort to find a basis of governance. Our founding fathers did not possess some divinely bestowed wisdom that allowed them to anticipate the needs of all Americans for all times.

It should be clear that our constitution can be amended, perfected, and interpreted in light of the present.  It is essentially the same as in the beginning, but is not the static, delivered-once-for-all document that some people would imply.

Furthermore, it was the US Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence nor the impotent Articles of Confederation that created a functional central government. Nor was it the Declaration of Independence nor the Articles of Confederation that was under attack during the Civil War, but the US Constitution.

Not to be confused with the Articles of Confederation is another interesting constitution under which a significant part of our country once functioned.  I refer to the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which was actually an altered version of the US Constitution.  The preamble (yes Rachel, there is a preamble) was altered significantly to include its states rights advocacy:

We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity — invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God — do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.

This contrasts with the Constitution of the United States whose preamble states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Equally significant but by its absence is the phrase “in order to form a more perfect union”.

This southern states rights viewpoint, when imposed upon the US Constitution, provided cover for slavery and later Jim Crow until finally the courts, then the legislators, started to apply the power of the federal government to civil rights issues.

We would do well to watch carefully this new breed of constitutionalists, especially when they speak boldly and affectionately of our Constitution while using terminology more consistent with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, or even the Constitution of the Confederate States.

Since the Civil War, the federal government has become increasingly stronger as a means of preserving the Union and protecting the rights of all USAmericans.

Our country is not well-served by secessionist demagoguery and anachronistic states rights rhetoric. Our new congressmen and senators need to be about “a more perfect union”, not encouraging a return to confederacy!