Don’t Mess With Our Constitution : Politics: The Republican Congress has introduced 148 amendments.

A customer asked a bookseller: “Have you a copy of the Constitution?”

“No,” the bookseller replied, “we do not deal in periodical literature.”--19th-Century French joke.

What was once true of the French Constitution could become true of the U.S. Constitution--the most durable governing document in world history--if the Newt Gingrich Republicans get their way.

Since the start of the 104th Congress, 148 constitutional amendments have been introduced. They range from the serious, if misguided (the balanced budget amendment, which failed by one vote in the Senate) to the patently political (the term limits amendment, which was handily defeated in the House) to the racist (an amendment to prohibit the creation of congressional districts based on color, language or the minority status of voters).

Most recently, a House subcommittee held hearings on a school prayer amendment, and the House and Senate judiciary committees considered an amendment to make burning or otherwise desecrating the American flag unconstitutional.

I’ve got a proposal: How about an amendment to make desecration of the Constitution unconstitutional? I’d define desecration in the intellectual as well as physical sense--those who try to load up our governing document with inane, irresponsible or pernicious amendments would be guilty of violating the Constitution. Imagine how many congressional Republicans could be brought to justice.

More seriously, it’s time for those who carry the banner of conservatism, as it is defined in the Newt Gingrich era, to return to the term’s true meaning: to defend and perpetuate what works. For 206 years, the Constitution has worked amazingly well. And it should for the next 206 years, if it can survive the 104th Congress.

The Constitution is the world’s oldest written charter of government still in effect. When it was first crafted, America was a country large in area and rich in natural resources, yet poor and underpopulated. Having become the first country to throw off the shackles of colonialism and begin an experiment in national democracy, America’s political future was uncertain. In large part, the success of our democracy is due to the genius of the Constitution.

Today, we are a great country, vast and rich. Except for a few old buildings along the Atlantic seaboard, little is left of the world the framers knew. Yet the document they composed remains vital and largely unchanged. Their foresight and sagacity are awe-inspiring. Their stature only grows in contrast to today’s politicians who would have us believe that the estimated si flag burnings a year pose a threat to the survival of a nation that endured a Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, nuclear threats and economic and cultural upheavals.

That the Constitution has been amended only 27 times--actually just 17 times in the 204 years since ratification of the Bill of Rights--is testimony both to the brilliance of the framers and the responsible stewardship of most elected leaders since then. That is because they usually limited amendments to two purposes: to expand Americans’ democratic rights and to enhance the political process.

The only major exception to this standard was the 18th Amendment: prohibition. And look what happened; it was such a disaster that the 18th and became the only amendment to be repealed.

The proposed Republican constitutional amendments are squarely in the prohibition model. The flag burning amendment restricts citizens’ rights and would be the first to infringe upon our First Amendment guarantee of free speech and expression. The school prayer amendment would also undermine the First Amendment in its protections against government “establishment of religion.” The balanced budget amendment would codify policy into a document that’s about process. And the term limits amendment would restrict our democratic choices.

Supporters cite the 22nd Amendment (limiting presidential terms) as precedent, but that, too, like prohibition, that should be repealed.

It’s time to give the Constitution some respect. Lawmakers whose vision goes only as far as the latest poll numbers should stop trying to tinker with the work of men whose vision has lasted for 200 years.