It's Like 10,000 Spoons When All You Need is a Knife

The Supreme Court declined to hear the case over the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Court approved the legalization, and conservative groups in favor of creating a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage appealed to the US Supreme Court before being declined.

The Supreme Court currently listens to Ashcroft v. Raich, the case of a California woman fighting to keep the use of marijuana in California for medicinal purposes (which she defends as single-handedly saving her life after trying 35 other forms of medical treatment) legal. Acting Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing John Ashcroft (yes, that John Ashcroft) in this case, argues that California's legalization of marijuana undermines the federal legislation outlawing it. Needless to say, Clement fights for the Supreme Court to overrule the California state government and essentially make marijuana illegal once again.

Now, to put this in perspective...

In George W. Bush's remarks at the 2000 Republican National Convention, he mentions "big government" as putting up walls that divide us, stating:

"On one side are wealth and technology, education and ambition.

On the other side of the wall are poverty and prison, addiction and despair.

And, my fellow Americans, we must tear down that wall.

Big government is not the answer."

Bush later goes on to say about government's ability to fix what ails us all:

"Government cannot do this work. It can feed the body, but it cannot reach the soul."

And, just for good measure, Bush reiterates in his 2004 Republican National Convention remarks, although spin and pot shots at Democratic Candidate John Kerry help Bush dance around the exact words:

"(Kerry's) tax and -- His policies of tax and spend, of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity are the politics of the past."

And yet, with a Constitutional amendment and a Supreme Court ruling, this now conservative "big" government would be "doing this work." Which is noteworthy, considering the Republican platform in 2000 clearly stated:

"We must acknowledge that the federal government’s role should be to set expectations in policies, then get out of the way and let the states implement and operate those policies as they best know how. Washington must respect that one size does not fit all states and must not overburden states with red tape attached to its policies."

I suppose alot can change in four years. I also suppose that by "expectations," Republicans now mean "mandates."

Republicans, champions of limited government and states' rights, use the machine to quash what they fought so long to defend. I'm not faulting them. Just saying... To every thing, turn, turn, turn...