Why Ben Carson Is Beating Trump
Timothy Stanley – CNN
People who like conservative populism but can’t stand The Donald now have a house-trained alternative.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shows media photographers a sign during a campaign stop on Oct. 23, 2015 in Doral, Fla. (AP)
Of course, liberals will struggle to see the difference between the two. Carson has said that Muslims should be disqualified from the presidency, that the Holocaust could’ve been averted if only the Jews had been armed and that abortion is like slavery. Crazy, right? Well, any keen observer of the conservative scene will tell you that these are all considered quite uncontroversial….
What’s unusual is his personality. Polling shows Carson leading on the matters of honesty and temperament. He has the soft-spoken bedside manner of the very best doctor — imagine those steady hands hovering over the nuclear button compared with Trump’s waving, shaking, itchy fists. The Carson biography is pure Americana, from zero to hero in one generation. That he was a bad boy in his youth only fits better with the evangelical narrative of a man saved by grace.
He’s Stupid: Behind The Inexplicable Appeal of Ben Carson
Ted Rall – aNewDomain.com
More than anything else, it’s Carson’s answers to reporters’ questions. He takes too long to reply. When he (finally) does, it’s always — always — something dumb.
Here’s an exercise. Right now, on Monday at 11:35 a.m. Eastern time, I’m going to Google Ben Carson and find the first answer in the first article that comes up with an answer. Here it is, from CNN.com:
As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers. And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone.”
Wow.
What?
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at a rally in Little Rock, Ark. on Aug. 27, 2015. (AP)
Why Trump and Carson want to bring about America’s Apocalypse
Michael Gerson – The Washington Post
Republican rhetoric is often characterized by a (slightly) more secularized version of apocalyptic prophecy. “Our country is going to hell,” according to Donald Trump. America is headed for the “cliff to oblivion,” according to Ted Cruz. The United States is “very much like Nazi Germany,” according to Ben Carson. All are apparently running for president of a dystopia.
Some of this is rhetorical laziness — employing hyperbole as a cheap substitute for genuine passion. Carson seems particularly prone to this strategy. By comparing Obamacare to slavery, Carson means he really, really, REALLY doesn’t like Obamacare.
But there is a cost to using the apocalypse for emphasis. It hardly needs to be said (though apparently it does) that Trump, Cruz, and Carson are wrong about America. We are not like Nazi Germany, even a little bit. We are not teetering on the verge of national oblivion. And there are immigrants who risk everything to reach the country Trump consigns to hell.
The podiums for (L to R) Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Ben Carson are lined up for the third Republican presidential candidate debate in Colorado on Oct. 27, 2015. (Reutters)
Ben Carson’s Faith (and Mine) Has Already Touched Your Life
Mark A. Kellner – Religion News Service
Trump probably isn’t alone in not knowing much, or anything, about the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Christian movement organized 152 years ago in Battle Creek, Mich., which claims 19 million members around the world, of which a little more than one million live in the U.S.
But the church of Carson’s choice — and, since 1999, mine — has already touched the lives of multiple millions, even if they don’t realize it.
Did you have cereal for breakfast? Thank W.K. Kellogg, who along with his brother, physician John Harvey Kellogg, adopted health principles promoted by Ellen G. White, a pioneering co-founder of the Adventist movement. White advocated for a vegetarian diet, and it was the Kelloggs who pressed corn into flakes that could be served with (preferably soy) milk for breakfast. (Until he entered the presidential race, Carson was a director of the Kellogg company.)