In reply, Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have’.” — Luke 10:25-37
The question from an “expert on the law” that Jesus replied to was, “And who is my neighbor?” — which he asked after Jesus had told him, “Love thy neighbor.” And in that one response, Jesus points out the differences between conservatives and liberals. Liberals have empathy. Conservatives do not. And the evidence for that is overwhelming.
Take the attack on Paul Pelosi and the conservative reaction to it. Pelosi is an 82-year-old man who was attacked at 2 AM in his own home by a crazed man with a hammer. He suffered wounds so grievous he was hospitalized and received emergency surgery to repair his skull.
How does someone with empathy react to that news? With concern, of course, regardless of their politics. And in fairness, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, and Mike Pence did express their sorrow and support. But they were in the minority.
Trump Jr. shared an image on social media of a hammer and a pair of underwear with the words “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.” Elon Musk tweeted (and deleted) a link to an article published by a conspiracy rag that claimed that Paul had met his attacker in the middle of the night at a gay bar and brought him home.
The Gateway Pundit, a conservative click-bait whore called the attack "another liberal lie." Conservative toilet brush Dinesh D'Souza tweeted "nothing about the public account so far makes any sense." And Sen. Ted Cruz shared a tweet calling the attacker "a hippie nudist from Berkeley." He then called the idea the attack was motivated by right-wing ideology "absurd." Of course, the police proved Cruz wrong when their investigation revealed the assailant had a history of conspiracy theories and had gone to the home with zip ties and a plan to break Nancy’s knees.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. Attending the Federalist Society’s annual love-in, Justice Amy Coney Barrett told the wildly cheering throng “It’s really nice to have a lot of noise made, but not by protestors outside my house.” All jolly good fun.
But Barrett showed no concern for the damage her decision had done to people who the law would now force to give birth to their pedophile, rapist uncle’s child: the many mothers who could not afford an additional child; and pregnant women with fatal diseases who would be denied life-saving care by doctors terrified they would be charged with murder if the fetus died.
She is not alone. Justice Sam Alito had earlier been gifted a junket to Rome by Barrett’s alma mater, Notre Dame, to bask in the afterglow of his Dobbs decision. He ignored that his audience belonged to an organization that covered up 1,000s of child rapes. Instead, he used the occasion to try out his stand-up comedy routine and only showed why there are so few conservative stand-up comedians.
The conservative lack of empathy is not episodic. It is systemic. It is part of the Republican psychological makeup. What is their insult of choice for Democrats? “Woke.” — a C.21st version of ”bleeding heart liberal.” Only people who lack empathy can think caring too much is the worst thing you can do.
Conservative school and LGBTQ+ policies further illuminate their stone-heartedness. Their callous measures benefit people who have not been hurt and hurt people who need support — with a heaping dollop of racism thrown in. Icing their dismal disregard, they call Democrats, expressing their concern for the victims of conservative abuse, “groomers.”
The MAGA’s spiritual center is a pussy-grabbing cheat who spitefully stopped paying for his great-nephew’s cerebral palsy treatments. This thin-skinned sadist was irked that his oldest brother's children — his cousins — sued him for cutting them out of his dementia-riddled father's will.
It is hardly surprising that the GOP wanted to strip many Americans of their healthcare by attempting to repeal Obamacare. And cause hardship to the poor by rejecting the Medicaid expansion.
Republicans boast about how their policies will benefit the average American. Yet their anti-regulation crusade and climate denial put profits over people. And the minimum wage has remained at $7.25 for 13 years — losing 28% of its purchasing power. While at the same time, $trillions have flowed to the wealthiest. You can not say you give a damn about people with policies like those.
School shootings most clearly show their indifference to human suffering. It takes an unimaginable lack of feeling to ignore suffering parents while doing zilch to prevent future massacres. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was when one of the circus of conservative, pseudo-celebrities, Joe the Plumber, wrote to the father of a murdered school kid: "Your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights."
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus called out a priest and a religious official — conservatives — for leaving a man to die. While he celebrated the "wokeness" of a Samaritan, a lowly-regarded foreigner — think Mexican. And that is why Jesus — if he should return — will come back as a bleeding heart liberal.