MORE ON "CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATISM"

I have to admit that looking into rightwing propaganda has led me to do a lot of reading that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise. There have been 2 areas in which I have concentrated my research, the Bible and the Constitution, and I can honestly say that I have learned a lot.

I've just finished reading Jack N. Rakove's ORIGINAL MEANINGS: Politics and Ideas in the making of the Constitution and I've found more evidence that the "constitutiional conservative" position is mostly BS.

First of all, the records kept by the secretary of the Constitutional Convention are clearly inadequate and the notes of the participants, most notably James Madison, aren't much help either.

Second, the Founders were concerned with pragmatic issues of the day in addition to the philosophy of poltiics, so it is rash to assume that their compromises reflect "eternal principles" as some conservatives claim.

Third, the entire notion of "states' rights" is suspect because James Madison, one of the primary Founders, thought very little of state legislators and even proposed allowing the national Congress to veto state legislation.

Fourth, the meaning of the Constitution, like almost any law, will be revealed in practice, as James Madison noted:

"All new laws, though penned with the greatest technical skill, and passed on the fullest and most mature deliberation, are considered as more or less obscure and equivocal, until their meaning be liquidated and ascertained by a series of particular discussions and adjudications." (Rakove, p. 159)

UPDATE: The Madison quote is from The Federalist, Number 37, 11 January 1788.