Retooling government

National | Does government have the "tools" that we need for success? | Cal Thomas

He's been saying it a lot lately, most recently on his tour of South America. President Clinton wants to "give people the tools to succeed."

Growing up, I remember my parents telling me, "You can do anything you set your mind to," and "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." They were teaching me the importance of persistence. I never recall them saying that Presidents Eisenhower or Kennedy or Johnson would be giving me the tools I needed to succeed.

What could President Clinton possibly mean? Back in the days when most graduates of institutions of higher learning were supposed to be reasonably conversant with philosophy (defined as "a discipline comprising as its core logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology"), such notions that government held the tools for success would have been a cause for some derision. Now, Mr. Clinton is taken seriously when he says such things.