Former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce used to make a lot of appearances here at the Big Orange, especially when he was President of the Senate, best friends with bigoted goonball Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and co-author of Arizona’s hate bill, SB 1070. Pearce eventually was even too much for the state’s far-right Republican party, spewing all kinds of crazy shit about immigrants, gays, and women mostly, and he was recalled in 2011. Don’t feel sorry for the buttwipe, though; he landed a six-figure job with the Maricopa County Treasurer’s office.
So here’s what county employee Russell Pearce, who lives in Dante’s deepest circle of fringy fruitcakes, said about the state of things in America these days, during a rambling speech Monday before a right-wing rally billed as “Patriotism Over Socialism”:
“And it may take the shedding of blood to keep this Republic… And I, for one, am willing to do whatever it takes.”
Yeah, he said that. It’s bad enough that we have a president inciting violence against members of Congress, a little man whose rallies are full of hateful rhetoric towards others, a criminal president who today provides shade for the most dangerous immigrant haters—to the point the Border Patrol gives license to vigilantes along the Mexican border.
Standing alongside Pearce during his violence-fueled rant were members of Patriot Movement AZ, who’ve been protesting churches that shelter refugees, and anti-Muslim bigot Laura Loomer. Kelli Ward, the Republican Party’s Chair in Arizona these days, was also in attendance, fresh off multiple defeats in GOP primaries. Ward followed those humiliations by tanking the GOP budget, because fewer Republicans are donating to the party that’s now led by one of Alex Jones’s favorite guests, and their fundraising has “plummeted.” Yea!
The Obama Department of Justice did not take kindly to the discriminatory practices of Arpaio, Pearce, and other Arizona bigots in their orbit; and we have the DOJ to thank, at least in part, for gutting SB 1070 and ridding us of these despicable elected officials. It’s unlikely we’ll see the current DOJ prosecute or even investigate a public employee who welcomes violence, to the point he’ll do “whatever it takes.” If anything, he’ll probably get a tiny thumbs-up from Trump.
