Conservatives are the historical defenders of states’ rights and a small federal government. In fact, many conservatives argue that this tradition continues to be an important issue to them. However, in practice, it seems that conservatives only support states’ rights when they agree with what the state is doing. In many recent cases, the Bush administration and other republican leaders have attempted to intervene in cases in which they think that the states are supporting things that are morally wrong. In most of these cases, the conservatives have won while abandoning their small government roots.

Just in the last few years, Bush and company have intervened in half a dozen issues. The federal government successfully disrupted the medical marijuana law in California after jailing a man for growing the drug for medicinal purposes. In the same way, the Bush administration has repeatedly fought with Massachusetts and California to deny the right of marriage to gay people. Bush even went to the extreme measure of suggesting a permanent change in the constitution to kill the issue, once and for all. And the Bush administration filed a lawsuit against California for caring about the environment and having tougher emissions laws than the rest of the nation. And then there’s the Terry Schiavo debacle.

The latest case of conservative meddling has made its way to the United States Supreme Court. After harsh criticism from the Bush administration, Oregon’s physician assisted suicide law has been brought to the high court. The law basically states that physicians are allowed to give drugs to terminally ill patients so that the sick can die in peace and without pain. These people actively want to die, but they do not have access to the means necessary for a painless death.

In this case, the conservatives cannot say that activist judges are to blame for the lack of morality. The people of Oregon voted on the issue themselves and made an informed decision. Furthermore, a vote to discontinue the suicides was rejected by more than 60 percent of the voters. In a typical move by conservatives, their peculiar sense of morality trumps secular thought that many of this nation’s citizens adhere to.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft first started hunting the doctors who were sympathetic to the terminally ill patients. He said that the doctors were violating federal drug laws by improperly distributing drugs. The doctors are not going out on the streets and selling the drugs, and they are not even getting any reward or pleasure from the drug distribution. They are merely following state law and helping sick people. Also, the number of patients that have taken advantage of this law is miniscule. Only 208 people have died as a result of the law. Surely the tax dollars that are being spent to fight the popular will of Oregonians could be used in a more efficient way.

Many conservatives see the doctors as drug dealers who are unlawfully prescribing drugs. They add that assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer. This is a ridiculous argument. The doctor has no way of healing the terminally ill patients from their sickness, so they are doing the next best thing: healing them of their pain. They aren’t going behind sick people’s backs and giving them lethal drug doses. The patients are actively seeking out doctors for a permanent escape from their pain.

This is just another example of the hypocrisy of the right. The conservatives’ penchant for flip-flopping accordingly when issues of morality and religion arise is deceitful and nauseating. They say they represent the values of the average Americans, but they seem perfectly willing to abandon their own rhetoric and ignore the decision of the majority to impose their own ideas and beliefs. It’s time for voters to see through their crude illusion and demand an accurate representation of their will.