Even in Apologizing, Russell Pearce Demonstrates Unfitness For Office

By Michael Bryan

Today Russell Pearce finally threw in the towel and just apologized for his wooden-headed statements on Facebook following the Aurora massacre.

But even as he apologized for having caused offense, he doubled down:

"I will never understand policies that disarm honest citizens and leave them vulnerable to the premeditated attacks of madmen..."

The fact that Pearce 'will never understand' policies that disagrees with is the best evidence of his unfitness for public office. A public official needs to be able to understand the merits and weaknesses of his own and opposing policies. A person who has no capacity or interest in understanding those who disagree with him has no business being an elected representative in a democratic society.

Pearce's inability is likely not an intellectual incapacity, it is a willful rejection of any attempt to understand an opposing view. Note he says he 'will' never understand, not that he 'can' never understand. It's not that he can't: he won't. Pearce is unwilling to see opposing views as legitimate, and that's why he should never hold public office again.