Ben Carson: Because Donald Trump Wasn’t Crazy Enough

Dr. Ben Carson speaks to address the crowd at CPAC in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 26, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

When Donald Trump skyrocketed to the top of the polls this summer in the race for the Republican nomination in 2016, people couldn’t believe it. Having decried Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug-addicts, the Donald went on to slam Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who spent years as a POW in Vietnam, as not being a war hero, give out fellow candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) personal phone number at a campaign event, and more. Though Trump still remains top dog in the Republican primary field, his closest challenger represents another member of the anti-establishment that has risen in this presidential cycle; neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

The soft-spoken candidate with an inspiring story of starting with nothing and rising to become one of the most talented neurosurgeons in history came to conservative political prominence at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2012, where he gave a speech that dealt stinging criticism to President Barack Obama, just a few seats away.

Now, however, Carson’s political prestige has taken on an entirely new level as the doctor has risen to the top of Iowa and some national polls in the race for the Republican nomination as a candidate that offers the same outside look on politics as Donald Trump without all the bravado and insults. Problematically, however, Carson has been gaffe-prone more than any candidate in recent history.

Critics begin by pointing to his comments on the Affordable Care Act. A harsh critic of the law, Carson declared, “Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened to this nation since slavery,” at the Value Voters Summit in Washington in 2013. As if this wasn’t crass enough, Carson argued that the Affordable Care Act eclipsed even the 9/11 terrorist attacks, claiming that at least “9/11 is an isolated incident” in a radio interview with Armstrong Williams. Don’t get the good doctor wrong, however; he certainly does not despise terrorists any less despite believing today’s healthcare system to be worse than the most devastating attack on American soil in history. In fact, his hatred for terrorists has extended, to a degree, to all Muslims in general.

In an interview with NBC over the summer, Carson told Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,” and saying that Muslim values do not fit within the Constitution. Shockingly, Carson even criticized AP US History classes for teaching a curriculum that didn’t glorify American history enough, saying that he thought “most people, when they finish that course, they’d be ready to go sign up for ISIS,” at the National Security Action Summit in 2014.

His hatred does not end with those of opposing faiths, however. As a staunch Seventh Day Adventist, the retired neurosurgeon was one of the fiercest defenders of keeping marriage between a man and a woman. In an interview with Sean Hannity in 2013, Carson said on the topic of marriage, “It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality. It doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.” There are ways to argue and ways to purely offend, and parallelizing homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality certainly falls under the latter. He has even questioned the legitimacy of homosexuality, claiming that it is a choice. He told CNN in March to look at the prisons; “A lot of people go into prison straight, and when they come out, they’re gay.” The callous comment drew the ire of the LGBT community and many Americans at large for its divisiveness.

As a Seventh Day Adventist, Dr. Carson also believes much of the Book of Genesis to be true history. He reiterated to CBS last week what he claimed in his 1998 commencement speech to Andrews University, a college founded by Seventh Day Adventists, “that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain”. This reference to Joseph storing grain during the supposed seven years of plenty in Egypt have been rebuffed strongly by, among other things, a multitude of actual ancient Egyptian writings that say the pyramids were, in fact, graves for pharaohs.

For some reason, it seems Ben Carson also has some strange obsession with Nazis and fascists. In reference to the IRS, the doctor told Newsmax TV, “You know, we live in a Gestapo age; people don’t realize it,” as he alleged that the IRS had audited him for making inflammatory remarks concerning President Obama. He also bashed political correctness by telling Breitbart news American society is “very much like Nazi Germany” due to the “PC Police”. He went on to say, “I know you’re not supposed to say ‘Nazi Germany’, but I don’t care about political correctness.” In decidedly his most glaring Nazi transgression, however, Carson told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this summer that the Holocaust could have been avoided if there had not been gun control legislation in Germany. He said, “If there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would 6 million Jews have been slaughtered? I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed.” Despite coming under heavy fire for such seemingly nonsensical defenses of the Second Amendment, Carson has stuck with his constant allusions to the Third Reich in an effort to paint a more dramatic picture on his views.

His cringe-worthy comments on guns did not end there, however. After the tragic shooting in Oregon that left ten people dead in October, Carson implicitly shifted some of the blame of the deaths on the victims by saying he would not have cooperated. “Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,” he said on the show. “I would say: ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me but he can’t get us all.’” Under more fire for seeming crass, Carson brushed off criticism with a line to eclipse all the others with an ensuing Facebook post that stated, “There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking—but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.”

Even after all of these gaffes and questions about the truth behind stories of his admission to West Point, Carson has tossed aside what he calls a media witch hunt into his past. He has gone as far as to say President Obama did not receive nearly the same amount of scrutiny when running in 2008, despite the nigh-constant accusations of being born outside of the United States and of being a Muslim, both of which were proven to be completely unfounded claims.

While it is certainly important to rise above ad-hominum attacks on candidates and focus on the issues, there is still a certain level of ethos required to run to become President of the United States, and, in essence, the leader of the free world. Though Carson has no political experience, the real issue with his candidacy lies in an inability to articulate his thoughts without reaching directly for the most offensive and divisive choice possible. Carson may certainly be a soft-spoken candidate and a conservative darling, but the American people needs to take a closer look at the retired neurosurgeon before giving him an opportunity to lead the country.

The Rise of the Anti-Establishment

Despite never having held public office, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, and Donald Trump are dominating the polls in the race to capture the Republican nomination.

The 2016 presidential election was always going to be a thrilling one. The Republican primary has been flooded with no less than seventeen candidates, while the Democrats on the opposite side of the isle watch a select few try to battle their way past the inevitability of Hillary Clinton. No matter which party you look at, however, one trend in this campaign cycle is becoming more and more clear; the American people are sick and tired of establishment politics.

In January, it seemed almost certain that Hillary Clinton would face off against establishment, super-funded Jeb Bush or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the general election. Bush had quietly let slip that his Super PAC would be able to raise over $100 million before he even decided to officially run, and Walker had been setting first-in-the-nation Iowa ablaze with his speeches and connections to the Midwestern state.

Fast-forward to September. The latest CNN poll shows the braggadocios Donald Trump leading the Republican field with 24% while ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina and evangelical neurosurgeon Ben Carson come in 2nd and 3rd with 15% and 14% respectively. Amazingly, none of the three leaders in the GOP have ever held any political office. Jeb Bush has fallen to just 9%, and Scott Walker, registering less than 1%, has astoundingly dropped out of the race altogether after running out of hard cash to fund his campaign.

At first, many people had viewed Walker as an “outsider” to the sluggish, despised machine that Washington is often painted as today. With the emergence of the unimaginably aggressive Trump, the stirring performance of Fiorina, and the calm, friendly demeanor of Carson, however, being an outsider took on a whole new definition for a Republican base that has seen its party finally win a majority on Capitol Hill and do next to nothing substantive with it. Walker has paid the price, and the man who was once expected to be a heavy favorite to win the nomination has dropped out five months before the first ballot will be cast.

The Democratic side is hardly different. Hillary Clinton represents every vestige of establishment politics; hailing from a politically powerful family, loved by donors and extensively funded, and falling in line with almost every standard Democratic position. Though her lead remains intact nationally, an insurgency from the left in the shape of a self-described socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) has taken the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire by storm and could spill into the rest of the country.

Bernie Sanders has held the largest rallies in the presidential race and continues to win over support in droves as voters grow more and more wary of the establishment-blessed Clinton.

Though Sanders has been in politics for almost forty years as the Mayor of Burlington and as a Representative and now Senator of Vermont, the progressive firebrand is about as far as it gets from the usual career politician. An outspoken critic of big money in politics and rampant income inequality, Sanders’ unorthodox message has caught fire and lent serious thought to the idea that the era of establishment candidates like Clinton is over.

This rise of the anti-establishment has come upon the American political system without warning or precedent. The Donald captured headlines out of nowhere with his announcement speech that decried Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug addicts, and the real estate mogul has dominated headlines ever since for his bravado, name-calling and demagoguery. Along with him came Ben Carson, a soft-spoken neurosurgeon that offered the same lack of political experience that the voters so dearly craved without the over-assertiveness of Trump.

Carly Fiorina especially has been one of the most surprising stories. Having presided over one of the worst periods in Hewlett-Packard’s history that included an over 50% drop in profits and over 30,000 layoffs, Fiorina had been stuck in the low single-digits in polls for months after entering the race. An impressive undercard debate performance and some intense lobbying of CNN led to the ex-CEO being placed on the main debate on the 17th where yet again Fiorina impressed. Those two performances later, Fiorina had jumped 11% in the polls and has become a serious contender for the nomination.

In the GOP especially, the abrupt come-up of these three individuals illustrates the type of frustration that the Republican base is feeling. Two regulars of the political stage in Walker and ex-Texas governor Rick Perry have already dropped out due to lack of support and funds, but one-time prohibitive favorite Jeb Bush has been particularly underwhelming, suffering multiple gaffes on Iraq and women’s health as well as a forgettable first debate. Only in the CNN debate has the ex-Florida governor held his ground at all, and the funds-rich candidate remains inexplicably polls-poor at just 9% nationally.

The Republican primary is especially interesting due to the lack of policy specifics driving each insurgent campaign. Trump’s main points have mainly been anti-immigrant and pro-wall on the Mexican border. Carson has admitted to being a little out of his depth on policy, especially on the global stage, while Carly Fiorina has only the powerful rhetoric of the debates that has propelled her forth, not any political details. Conservatives aren’t even overly concerned with the issues anymore, they simply want to turn to a candidate they think isn’t lying through their teeth and will actually shake up D.C.

On the left, Bernie Sanders has led a very different type of anti-establishment revolution. The Vermonter has laid out numerous detailed plans to fight income inequality, create more jobs, reverse climate change, fix campaign finance, and more. The senator has packed tens of thousands into venues to see him speak and has managed to hold his own in the fundraising war despite not starting a Super PAC. As the party’s pick in Clinton continues to struggle with handling her email controversy, Sanders has ridden the wave of liberalism in the Democratic Party into the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire despite not actually identifying as a true Democrat.

While it may be too early to definitively say that establishment politics are done for, it’s certainly not out of the question to suggest it. Never before has a presidential cycle been so dominated by candidates that have won the love of the people without winning anything close to the support of their party mechanisms, and the ensuing developments of having such candidates run has utterly shaken up the race for the White House. It seems America is fed up with the same-old in Washington and that the anti-establishment is well and truly on the rise.