My confusion about the Schiavo case aside, I think there is something deeply hypocritical in the Democrats’ newfound faith in the concepts of federalism and enumerated powers to avoid federal and state action to prlong Schiavo’s life. Liberals are the ones who have wrecked federalism in the 20th Century, starting with the New Deal, the Great Society, and the more general evisceration of any distinction between federal and state government. It’s weird and rings hollow when the folks that want OSHA inspectors in our businesses, school lunches provided to our children, federal legislation on guns in school zones, and a myriad other police-style actions by the federal government to object so vociferously when such power might be used to save someone’s life. I myself would not favor such an exercise of federal power (though I do think the Florida legislature had the right to protect Schiavo with such a private bill.) But, as a friend put it, it seems the liberal jurisprudence comes down to a meticulous defense of enumerated powers and the principles of federalism whenever they happen to agree with some ruling by the Florida courts.
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One of the two major parties using fair-weather federalism as an excuse to further their political agenda? The likes of which I’ve never seen…!