A “joke” from Pearce: “If I’d had a heart, I’d be dead.”

by David Safier

AZ Blue Meanie has assembled a frightening number of sources about Russell Pearce's guiding light, W. Cleon Skousen. You can read them a few posts down.

I found something else in the same article, said in jest by Pearce, reaffirming my belief that one of the overriding qualities of today's conservatives is a total lack of empathy — or, to use Pearce's terminology, lack of heart.

The back story, and it's a doozy, is this: When Pearce was a sheriff's deputy, he confronted 3 kids who were drinking. He had a Doberman sicced on him, then he was shot. The bullet sliced off his ring finger and went into his chest. Yet Pearce continued, got one of the three in his police car, then ran the two others down. It sounds like one of those unbelievable scenes in an over-the-top cop movie.

Here is Pearce's joke about the incident:

"That's why I'm a Republican today," he said. "I owe my life to this party. If I'd had a heart, I'd be dead."

That's Pearce's sense of what it means to be a Republican — heartless. No, he's not making fun of the progressive stereotype of a conservative. He's embracing it.

That's why it's so easy for them to scoff at people like me as "bleeding heart liberals." They pride themselves on their heartlessness.

That explains a lot.

And no, I don't think it's unfair to call me a "bleeding heart liberal." I'm also a "tax-and-spend liberal." That explains a lot too.