What Mitt Romney and the Republican party would like, according to their own rhetoric is for the individual states to have ultimate power over their individual legislation - which if you actually stop and think about it without the ridiculous arguments from conservatives, is the dumbest thing ever!  Let's say an individual state wishes to not allow available, affordable legal representation to the rural poor.  They can certainly legislate that and not allow legal aid public funding for such an organization but is that constitutional?  Conservatives justify this kind of exploitation by legislation assuming that the playing field is level.  This is the kind of argument you get from those who thought slavery did not exploit, or that farm workers in California during the 50's and 60's were not exploited either through legislation or the lack of!  Governor Reagan vetoed funding for rural legal aid allowing trumped up charges to be levied against the CRLA. A legal aid organization for rural workers. 

So in the previous example we see this is nothing new. The foundation for this kind of thinking was laid long ago, the rhetoric surrounding these current issues has just reached a fever pitch level once again. This means lots of lies are perpetrated in an effort to either dismiss the cause or hide the conservative Republican view on this and similar issues.

The idea that individual states must legislate their own interpretation of the U.S. Constitution is at the very least, ridiculous and absurd on its face.  But this is the argument that the new extremists, fundamentalist conservatives of what looks like the "new" Republican party is all about.  We have a movement that started before Ronald Reagan was governor of California but in many respects was launched as a result of former Governor and former President Reagan's policies. First in California and then on a national level.  The pandering and acceptance of the "religious right" movement and the nurturing and acceptance of more and more extremist conservative views has brought us to where we are today.  A party that relishes in ignorance (putting down anything intellectual) including the denying of science and factual evidence. 

It's kind of scary...