Good for you, you have a heart, you can be a liberal. Now, couple your heart with your brain, and you can be a conservative.

The line frames U.S. political identity as a progression from emotion-driven compassion (“heart,” associated here with liberalism) to a supposedly more rational, disciplined outlook (“brain,” associated with conservatism). It draws on a long-standing rhetorical trope that casts liberals as well-intentioned but naïve and conservatives as clear-eyed realists. As a piece of persuasion, it flatters the listener’s empathy while redirecting it toward the speaker’s preferred ideology, implying that conservatism is the mature synthesis of feeling and reason. The formulation also functions as a boundary-making device: it defines “true” conservatism as both moral (not heartless) and intellectually superior (more rational).