On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation. It took them 16 months to come up with that piece of crap. It just shows how little the colonies trusted each other. But over time, we did become one nation. What most amazes me is how much we’ve regressed. It used to just be the south that couldn’t get over the fact that their human “property” was taken from them. But now it seems that a majority of Republicans really think that the Articles of Confederation are superior to the Constitution.

The conservatives who most claim to love the Constitution most embrace the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But conservatives think it reads, “The powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But that’s not what the Constitution says; it is what the the Articles of Confederation say. Well, actually, it said, “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.”

The Articles of Confederation stopped us from being a functioning country — largely because of that clause. But I’ve never gotten the idea that modern conservatives hate the idea of one country. But they know that they can’t, for example, make the whole country allow slavery. But they do think they could enforce slavery in Mississippi. And so that’s where we get all the “states’ rights” garbage and the idea that the federal government can’t do anything other than what it is expressly given the power to do.

So, am I saying that conservatives are not patriotic? Yes, in general, I am. Not all conservatives, of course. Originally, it was the conservatives who were most in favor of federalism. But anyone who talks about states’ rights and waves around the Confederate battle flag is indeed not patriotic. They ought to be waving around an ISIS flag for all I care. I would respect their right to do either, but I don’t respect any of the people who do so. But the thing is, I can’t imagine an ISIS supporter going around claiming that they are patriotic Americans.

Yet we get nothing but Neo-Confederates claiming that they love the Constitution and the United States so much. But they don’t. And they are already involved in terrorism, and it will only get worse — helped on by the NRA, which is only committed to the well being of gun manufactures, who are in turn only interested in their profits. Going back to the Articles of Confederation were hurt all of them more than the rest of us. The economic powerhouse states would still get along. But that doesn’t mean that it still wouldn’t be very bad for the nation and the world.