Nick Anderson of The Houston Chronicle (who granted me permission to share this piece) has brilliantly destroyed the conservative notion that government as an institution is nothing more than an intrusive entity.
And he does so, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and FEMA's critical response, with brutal simplicity:
If the adage there are no atheists in a foxhole has any semblance of truth, then so too does the adage there are no big-government opponents in a national disaster.
For in a time of great crisis, where the federal government's resources, when used for good, are best equipped to save and protect American lives, there are no anti-government proponents. Not in those moments. That fact alone eviscerates the political philosophy as absolute.
And this cartoon couldn't express that sentiment any better.
More of Nick Anderson's work can be seen in his blog at The Chronicle, which I highly recommend.
Author's Note 1:
By the way, just to get a sense of Anderson's brilliance, here's today's creation:
Author's Note 2:
As an agnostic, I hear and value those critiques levied against my atheists in foxholes analogy. While I'm going to leave it in the post, I'd say I lean toward agreeing with them.
However, I'd also like to share words from a BOHICA comment to which I certainly agree:
“There are no atheists in foxholes,” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. {James Morrow}