Yeah, well that's the thing: they like the idea of being against government regulations, but if it is presented to them as a moral issue, they eat it up.

Case in point: a comment in this thread loosely trying to pose PH's response as being against states' rights -- in this case, due to the states tacitly regulating morality. I'm sure if the issue was e.g. raising state taxes, all of a sudden states' rights wouldn't matter.

The right wing learned a while ago that if you can pose anything as morality, there is a whole class of people that will simply lick the boot.