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I am familiar with constitutional law. The doctrine of incorporation of the Bill of Rights via the 14th Amendment did have major consequences, but it is only one of a set of innovations that altered the foundations of US constitutional law. Most of those changes are now cemented into place.

The larger point is that we conservatives tend too much to regard many key turns in US constitutional law as battles lost, almost as Southerners used to believe in the Confederacy as a Lost Cause that might have won, if only. Instead of ruing what has been lost and trying to resurrect obsolete legal doctrines, we should give greater consideration to what kind of constitution we are advocating for today.

For example, I suspect that, if they considered it, few Americans would want to lose the now long-established right to go to federal court to protect their constitutional rights against the depredations of state and local governments. That being so, our focus should be on the substance of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights. In most instances, there is a strong basis for conservative interpretations -- and that is where battles are still in the balance.