Provide vs. promote

A basic distinction to emphasize in 2002 | Marvin Olasky

In the mid-1990s Bill Clinton was going with the flow and announcing that the big government era was over. Late in 2001 liberals and neoconservatives have been saying that the easy U.S. victory in the first stage of the war on terrorism shows that big government is popular again. That's illogical spin, and they should not be allowed to get away with it.

We can puncture the balloon of those who would use military needs to engorge government generally by learning from the original Cassius Clay of Kentucky. Some may remember that name as Muhammad Ali's pre-Muslim moniker, but I'm referring to the antebellum anti-slavery editor and politician who faced many hostile crowds. In the 1840s he typically picked up a Bible and said, "To those who respect God's word, I appeal to this book." Then he held up a copy of the Constitution and said, "To those who respect our fundamental law, I appeal to this document." Then he took out two pistols and his Bowie knife and said, "To those who recognize only force ..."