Thanks, Jon. Dig this last line, “Rather than demanding a smaller government, call out for a better one.” Sometimes I think the big government/small government language makes it easy to separate ourselves from ‘government’ — as if this isn’t a democracy where we govern ourselves.

It’s the difference between the way a kid thinks of a parent at bedtime (a force that I don’t control and that prevents me doing what I want; a force that I don’t control and lets me do what I want) and the way we think of ‘bedtime’ as adults (I can choose to stay up late or go to bed early, but whether I miss tonight’s fun or suffer tomorrow on too little sleep, it’s up to me). If Democrats tend to favor big government, they also think of government as a nurturing parent; Republicans talk about it as an authoritarian parent. And if the government is a parent, they’re both right: who wouldn’t want more time with a nurturing one and less time with an authoritarian one?

But if we think about government as our own adult way of governing ourselves, size matters a lot less than quality. And a quality government—you’re absolutely right—directs its resources toward human needs and away from spying and killing.