debating whether such and such an activity is a ‘proper’ role of federal or state governments is another one of those red herring arguments that start out with made-up proposition as the grounds chosen for the argument to take place on

the fact is that any government is merely a tool that societies use to accomplish things. in a democratic society we have a say in what the activities of government are, and when most of us agree that the government should do such and such a thing, then it is a ‘proper’ role of government

it’s the ‘proper’ role of government because we agreed that we wanted to use government to do it, that’s why