Ben Carson Rejects Political Correctness and “Trumps” Harlem
Americans have given Donald Trump good poll numbers because he is doing what they would like to do themselves. He is unapologetically sticking his finger in the eyes of politically-correct, hypocritical career politicians and mainstream media mavens. What Trump’s poll numbers really say is that there are a lot of Americans who are tired of politicians from both parties who do nothing but serve up a steady diet of mush-mouthed platitudes designed to offend no one. I congratulate Trump for breaking the mold. It is refreshing to listen to his speeches.
Now another Republican candidate has done the same thing. Dr. Ben Carson went into the lion’s den—Harlem—and told black people there what they did not want to hear. He told them that if black lives really matter, young black men should stop killing each other. He told them if black lives matter, young black girls should stop having children out of wedlock. He told them that if black lives really matter, blacks should stop shackling themselves to a federal government made up of liberal politicians and career bureaucrats who care nothing about them and do nothing for them. He said these things with more tact than the Donald typically uses, but his message was just as courageous and refreshing as Trump’s. There may be some hope for the world. The Republican Party now has at least two candidates who are willing to reject political correctness and speak the unvarnished truth (and probably three with Ted Cruz in the mix).
Carson certainly has the credentials to advocate on behalf of personal responsibility and individual initiative instead of entitlement and dependence. If anyone’s life reflects the rags-to-riches story that is the very fabric of the American ideal it is Dr. Ben Carson. Carson spent his early life on the mean streets of Detroit, raised by a poor single mother who had little education and, in fact, could not read. Young Ben Carson had every excuse to become a bitter, frustrated, angry young man; a kid who like so many others in his circumstances chose gangbanging, drugs, and a life of economic and moral privation. But this is not what happened. In spite of her own limited education, Carson’s mother insisted that young Ben and his brother take their education seriously, avoid destructive influences, and work hard to better their lives. Both of them did.
As the world now knows, that young kid from the mean streets of Detroit eventually became Dr. Ben Carson, the renowned neurosurgeon who not only bettered his own life but bettered the lives of hundreds of patients from all over the world with his gifted hands. Now all these years later he is a viable candidate for the presidency of the United States. What a story. Horatio Alger could not have written it better. People are surprised going into the Iowa primary that Carson is doing so well in the polls. They shouldn’t be. His example and his message are as American as apple pie.
Can Ben Carson heal and unite America? I don’t know. But I do know that many doubted he could work the miracles he did in the operating room. I also know that Carson ignored the doubters and did what every Missourian expects people to do in such cases: he showed them. He didn’t talk about what he was going to do, he just did it. Now as a candidate for president he has adopted the same approach to dealing with doubters; he is showing them. In his quiet and self-assured way, Dr. Carson just keeps plugging away with his message of hope, self-reliance, and personal initiative.
I know one thing. Carson understands that to unite the races in America the next president will have to be willing to say some things that are not palatable to a lot of people, something he has proved himself willing to do. America has not been so racially divided since the bad old days of Jim Crow, and the reason can be summed up in two words: Barack Obama. He promised to help Americans of all stripes bridge the racial divide that has festered for so long in this country, but, once elected, did just the opposite.
Rather than use his bully pulpit as a tool for bringing the races together, Obama has used it as a weapon for keeping them apart. In every situation that had racial overtones—the police incident in Cambridge, the Trayvon Martin affair, and the Michael Brown shooting—Barack Obama responded in the manner of his race hustling buddy, Al Sharpton. Ben Carson, on the other hand responds to race in the manner espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To Carson, people of all races are children of God and equal in the Father’s eyes. He judges people according to the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. To Carson, race is neither an impediment nor an excuse. He has worked inside the brains of people of all races and knows that once you get below the skin, human beings all look alike.
Concerning the challenge of running against Hillary Clinton—or possibly Joe Biden—Carson is one of the conservative candidate most likely to defeat her. In poll after poll, Hillary edges out all of the various known Republican candidates. But this is not the case with Ben Carson. Carson’s unique qualities appeal to voters: black and white, Asian and Hispanic, rich and poor, blue-collar and white-collar, Republican and Democrat, Libertarian and independent. In what should surprise no one, it appears that people of all stripes like a politician who is willing to speak the truth, even when they don’t particularly want to hear it.
When it comes to policy issues, Ben Carson’s credentials are impressive. The booklet distributed by Run Ben Run! contains quotes from Carson that show where he stands on such issues as the national debt, Obamacare, taxes, marriage, abortion, illegal immigration, values, the redistribution of income, prosperity, welfare, political correctness, the Second Amendment, the war on religion, and prayer. A few representative examples illustrate why Dr. Carson is doing well in the run-up to the Iowa primary (Quotes are from the booklet Ben Carson for President 2016):
- Dr. Carson recommends repealing and replacing Obamacare. Here is what he says about the misnamed Affordable Care Act: “Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery…it is slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care. It was about control.” He made news recently during the Planned Parenthood controversy by accurately claiming that Planned Parenthood should no longer receive federal funding since Obamacare was supposed to take care of the needs of poor women.
- One of Dr. Carson’s comments on this subject summarizes his position on same-sex marriage: “Marriage is between a man and a woman and…no group has the right to change the definition of marriage to suit their needs.”
- Dr. Carson believes that abortion contributes to the growing culture of death in American society. He comments that, “…life begins at conception rather than at the time of delivery or at some arbitrary point during gestation.”
- Dr. Carson views welfare as a self-destructive trap that dehumanizes those caught up in it. His comments on this subject are instructive: “A truly moral nation enacts policies that encourage personal responsibility and discourage self-destructive behavior by not subsidizing people who live irresponsibly and make poor choices.” He goes on to say that this comment “…may seem a bit harsh to many bleeding heart do-gooders, but I submit that what is harsh is continuing to encourage irresponsible behavior and generating a permanent underclass.”
- Dr. Carson believes that Judeo Christian values “…are the values that…led us to the pinnacle position in the world faster than any nation in history.”
It is refreshing to hear the beliefs of a potential presidential candidate who actually loves America and believes in God, and who is open, straight-forward, and honest about it. I don’t know if Ben Carson will remain as a front-runner, but I hope he does. After Barack Obama and when compared with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, Dr. Carson is a breath of fresh air just as Ronald Reagan was when compared with Jimmy Carter. It will be interesting to see what happens in Iowa.
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