Compassionate conservativizing

The catchphrase way back when was the desire of our current leaders to be compassionate. They were going to show the rest of us that they weren't just mean, old pro-business Republicans.

I guess reality has a way of stripping the veneer away.

I don't see them (any more) as mean, old pro-business Republicans. They're just Republicans. They pander to their constituents just like the Democrats.

But any administration that'd stand between very sick people and something like growing their own marijuana and then using it to ease their suffering -- well, this smacks of a little hypocrisy. These are the selfsame people who view any abortion as cruel and inhumane.

By failing to show the minimum compassion required (by just leaving these sick people alone), the anti-dope fanatics probably won the battle. And lost the war.

Their compassion is now used to define the acceptable borders of our pain.