In his usual sledgehammer style, he [the cartoonist] includes a Gadsden flag to slam conservatives, Confederate imagery to smear Texans as racists, and then also includes a gratuitous slap at people of faith. It’s a smug, arrogant, and utterly tone-deaf attack on hurricane refugees in the midst of their crisis, exploiting their tragedy to ride his hobby horses all over their pain.

Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).

The first problem with the cartoon is it’s crassness. People are still being saved, and it’s making fun of those same people.



The second problem is the stereotypes. It’s almost a caricature of what you’d expect a liberal cartoonist to draw in response to conservative Texans relying upon the government in their time of crisis. The Confederate flag T-shirt. The Gadsden Flag. The reference to being saved by God (which seems extremely dismissive of Christianity). The Texas secession banner. It’s all kind of … predictable? …



But the cartoon suggests that normal people who believe in small government should essentially forfeit government help in their time of need — or, at least, that they should suddenly recognize that their belief in smaller government is wrongheaded. It’s all very smug, and it gives extremely short shrift to very complex issues.

An informal network of good Samaritans with small watercraft is once again mobilizing — this time in the wake of unprecedented flooding in Houston.



Formed 12 years ago after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the so-called Cajun Navy, which has saved thousands of stranded people, by some estimates, is already helping rescue stranded Texans, one member said Sunday.



“There’s no telling how many are already over there,” said 39-year-old Joey Hains of Lafayette, La. “Basically everybody that’s wanting to go help out” is going or has already arrived, he said.

Of the hundred and fifty thousand Louisiana homes that were washed out by the great rains of 2016, the vast majority–eighty-two per cent—were not insured against floods. The Bells’ home was in this majority. When I met the family this winter, their house was stripped to the studs, moldy and uninhabitable, and their damaged belongings were being held in a little trailer in the driveway. The Bells themselves were living in a white trailer supplied by fema (after storms, the agency deposits them on the lawns of the flooded, like condolence boxes), which they were entitled to use for only eighteen months. They did not know what they would do after fema took the trailer back. They had exhausted the generosity of family and friends, and their house, which represented much of their savings, was worth much less than it had been—the market was saturated with similarly damaged properties. They had been rescued, but, like many others in the Baton Rouge area, they were, in deeper ways, still stranded.



After the floods, the Cajun Navy became heroes in Baton Rouge. Newspapers celebrated them; they were the grand marshals of local parades; the lieutenant governor of Louisiana took a special interest in their project. There were hundreds of families like the Bells, who felt that they owed their safety not to the distant forces of government but to a neighbor who had put himself at risk to help them.

Not a FEMA boat

I wonder whether the reference to Thoreau is quite right. As I understand it, the quote from Thoreau is:

I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Thus, (1) Thoreau doesn’t seem to have himself penned the “governs least” motto, but was referring to an existing motto (as best I can tell, it was apparently the motto of the U.S. Magazine & Democratic Review, a Jacksonian Democrat journal that started publishing in 1837), and (2) Thoreau himself would oppose the existence of FEMA, the Coast Guard, etc., at least in the future even if not immediately.

I entirely agree that mocking the “governs least” people for accepting emergency government help is a mistake, because most people who take that view are small-government supporters, not no-government supporters. But bringing Thoreau into it only muddies the waters, I think; and even if I’m wrong on Thoreau’s embrace of outright anarchism, the quote itself seems not to be his. But I wanted to check with you first, since you’ve thought about the subject, and I want to make sure that I’m not in error on it. Many thanks,



Eugene Volokh

UCLA School of Law

Hello, Professor, thank you for writing! I am reluctant to take issue with you since I have been an avid reader of yours for many years. ... It may well be that HDT was citing something that had already been said, my readings did not make that clear either way. However, I'll append your note to the post as an update with credit and as little editing as possible.

"Today, millions of Trumpsters will go to church and pray for the people of Houston, although some of them will quietly thank Jesus for punishing them for electing a lesbian mayor.



They will not see the monstrous nature of their thoughts.



They will pray for their safety and then continue to support Republicans who deny that climate change is real.



They will continue to support Republicans, who refuse to take any steps to protect vulnerable cities like Houston because spending money on infrastructure like seawalls and levees is socialism.



They will continue to support Republicans who allow dangerous chemicals to be manufactured in residential areas because any regulation like "Don't make chemicals that can explode and wipe out a nearby school" is a "job-killer".



In Republican churches, killing children is acceptable but killing jobs is a mortal sin.



Today, Republicans like Ted Cruz will pretend to pray to Jesus and then continue to demand the same billions in government aid that they tried to deny to their northern neighbors in their time of need.



When the next superstorm devastates a blue state, you can be sure they will deny that aid once again because, in Republican churches, "Do unto others" has been replaced by "I got mine, screw you.""

- Justin Rosario

You'd think the Left would have learned from Politico's debacle of a few days ago when even fellow-travelers protests' compelled the site to take down this cartoon:Ed Morrisey explains In other words, any excuse will do to smack down people of Christian faith who do not cleave to the liberal line that Big Government is the same as the Hand of God. The Left sees everything in on-off, right-wrong terms. There is no nuance in their world view. A liberal colleague of mine, whom I have know for 20-plus years and who I count a a true friend, posted this similar cartoon on his FB page:In his comments on the cartoon, my friend betrayed what you encounter on the Left over and over: "I'm pointing out that the stance that all government help is bad is ridiculous and bad... ." To which I replied, "I know, or know of, exactly zero people on my side of the aisle who say that 'all government help is bad.' That's a memetic straw man on the Left but it has no basis."I wonder what the cartoonist or its enthralled would say if they knew that the quote in the first section, above, "That government is best which governs least," was penned by Henry David Thoreau (not Thomas Jefferson, as commonly attributed). Wikipedia So the quote is anti-racist and anti-war. Why exactly is it held up to such mockery by the Left? (Anyone remember when the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons in 2015 that Islamist gunmen thought highly offensive? They responded by shooting Hebdo's offices up , murdering 12 people and wounding 11 others.Now Hebdo has turned to safer targets of ridicule. Let us stipulate that the chance of outraged Texans charging into Hebdo's offices with guns blazing is quite remote.The cover's French translates, "God Exists! He Drowned All the Neo-Nazis of Texas."Which is kind of hilarious since Harris County, Texas, wherein lies Houston, and also Fort Bend, both clobbered by Harvey, very decisively voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. So is Hebdo saying that Hillary voters are Nazis? It would seem so.Commenting on the Politico cartoon, The Washington Post's Aaron Blake said And that is the basic template of almost all Leftist politics. There is absolutely nothing that so defines Leftism asof which this is only one example . Converse or correspond with anyone on the Left long enough and it becomes obvious that they are just plan mad, especially at people who do not agree that they just know better than you do. So their commentary is, "smug, predictable, dismissive," says Morrisey, "with all of the subtlety, wit, and artistry of a sledgehammer." You either agree with them altogether or you are painted as a racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, fundamentalist Christian, white supremacist, misogynist child of darkness. Who hates the government except in hurricanes.Meanwhile, here is what those racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, fundamentalist Christian, white supremacist, misogynist children of darkness who hate the government are actually doing instead of sitting around waiting for FEMA rubber boats that will never come anyway:USA Today: 'Cajun Navy' heads to Texas to aid Harvey rescues The New Yorker, Why Does America Need the Cajun Navy? The Washington Post: The ‘Cajun Navy’s’ secret weapon for saving lives: The human voice Funny, I have never seen one report of Antifa, the violent wing of the modern Left, assisting anyone. But you'll never see the media asking why.: Prof. Eugene Volokh emails (slightly edited for length):To which I replied,By the way, in the 15 years I have been blogging I have learned that the only writers who truly do have "layer and layers of editors and fact checkers" are bloggers.: And this is Exhibit - oh, I don't know, maybe Exhibit one million or so - from (where else?) Occupy Democrats . Folks, the Leftthis way:You know, I never knew that Houston's mayor was lesbian until Justin just told me. As I said above, there is absolutely nothing that so defines Leftism asand the more the better, in their view. That is why facts and evidence mean almost nothing to them: anger is non-rational. It is wholly emotive. Ultimately, every Left winger will resort to self-righteous and angry indignation when pressed to make his/her case.BTW, I am not a Trump supporter. I think there are serious issues with many of the things he has done, such as re-militarizing America's police forces. But I am not writing about Trump.