Here is one way in which Ben Carson stands out among the other Republican candidates:
Ben Carson has a very limited grasp of how our government works. The other candidates understand how our government works, and want to dismantle it.
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⌠and Carter was a nuclear engineer in the Navy.
Carson, on the other hand, doesnât believe in evolution.
On the one hand, I donât expect the President to be any kind of scientific expert, but he has to have enough sense to evaluate evidence in a rational way. If one is willing to believe the world is 6000 years old and was created in six literal days, it implies a staggering ability to rationalize away evidence in order to maintain your dogma.
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You are omitting two huge factors in the '80 race. First was the Iran Hostage crisis. It was in the news every day. The long-running TV news program Nightline was created in the midst of that crisis and it had a counter indicating how many days the hostages had been held. It didnât matter that a hostage rescue failed for reasons out of Carterâs control â he got the blame and it made him look even more hapless. (In contrast, when the Seal team killed Osama bin Laden, the right wing gave all the credit to the military and explicitly denied any credit to Obama).
Second was inflation â nobody was enjoying the 13% inflation. One can argue how much of it was due to fiscal policy and how much was due to uncontrollable economic factors, but Carter got all the blame. And as much as the right wing âknowsâ the press and entertainment industry is in the bag for Democrats, it sure didnât stop them from mocking and ridiculing Carter.
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What is so scary about Carson again that we donât already know?
If the cataclysmic event of any one of these right-wing/conservative nuts being elected were to occur, there is little difference in any of them. They all espouse the same lunacy when the rubber hits the road. Carson might preach more but the evangelicals already have a big grip on the GOP, so he would what, bomb Iran? So would the rest of them including supposed pacifist Paul.
The fear, if it is indeed fear, is that conservatism would get its shot once again and knowing that it may be the last, would go crazy to the enth. The vessel, AKA the President, would make little difference just like Bush didnât. He was steamrolled, somewhat willingly, completely ignorantly and totally because that is why they put him there.
Carson, by the mere color of his skin would cause so much inter-Party turmoil and squabbling that they might just obstruct him like they have Obama and that would be a good thing.
But, lets get real. The crazies are handicapping themselves and we are stronger and better than they are from any which way you look at it. 8 solid years of more Democratic influence most likely followed by 8 more will sink this boatload of craziness and possibly, just maybe, restart Democracy American style.
The crazies fear us and it makes them crazier, hence, we are winning!
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I have to admit that I didnât vote in yesterdayâs election, the first local, state, or federal election since I became eligible in (wait, you donât need to know that, but itâs a long time). However I will plead the excuse that there was not one single Democrat on the ballot in my area. There wasnât even a palatable Republican. Itâs still incredible to me that the local paper ran articles touting the re-elections of those idiots as if there was ever any doubt in the slightest.
who stipulated that America was under siege from the secret domestic agents of global Marxism who masqueraded as liberals
Iâm still waiting for my check from Comrade Kosygin.
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Hey, 53% would be a landslide, if it happened in the right states.
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you might want to update your post. Ohio voted in a non partisan congressional district drawing process.
I believe that a Trump/Carson ticket is a REAL POSSIBILITY at this point.
If that doesnât scare the living shit out of you nothing will.
While the Corporate wing seems to still want a Bush/Rubio ticket, that seems like a distant possibility at this point. Bush is just too dim to win and Rubio is two-dimensional, only really supported by people who donât know anything about him and ONE billionaire.
Trump/Carson unites the raging, white, male, asshole segment with the Evangelical Dominionist Tribal segment of the Republican Party.
That is a potent mix for the PRIMARIES but a losing proposition for the GENERAL election.
Carley is a diversion (and waaaaay too viscious) and Cruz and Huckabee appeal to the same group as Carson so they are out.
Kasich is too rational on a few issues for the Party Purest Police and Rand Paul is pitiful.
The Bircher Billionaires will make their choice soon and if they think that Trump or Carson are their best bet the $$$$ will dry up for the rest fast.
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Itâs our underestimation of the power of evangelical religion that helped bring the Right to power both locally and nationally. The Koch bros sincerely believe they do âgodâs workâ as do Cruz and Beck and all the other little Cromwellian saints.
I grupped in DC, but have lived in Red States since the late 70âs. I saw it coming â yet my Blue State friends insisted no one would listen or vote for Bible thumping snake worshippers. The filter bubbles persist.
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I am still waiting to hear why someone who is an accomplished neurosurgeon is no longer practicing or at least teaching the next generation of neurosurgeons. While I have heard rumors about why he is no longer practicing they have been just that rumors, without substantiation. This is a big piece of his life that ends with little explanation - time for some journalists to do some fact checking. I canât believe he quit his chosen profession to grift the flock.
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Also â why does no one talk about C St. anymore? The Family, its long history. Jeff Sharlet seems to have disappeared.
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I wonder if Carson is actually suffering from a form of mental illness that is heavily compensated by his intelligence.
Iâve noticed particularly in some of his videos in a last few years that he spends a lot of time looking down. He will say something then look down then sometimes look back up and speak again but sometimes continue speaking while looking down. You wonât see this as much in videos from just a few years ago.
His soft spoken manner might be a compensation mechanism for his violent past and a way of controlling inner anger.
We also have his paranoid theories, also often a sign of mental illness, and in this case it is not like Glenn Beck which is as much pandering to his market as it is real belief in delusions.
To top it off, his mother is suffering from Alzheimerâs which can be passed gentically.
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Donât be too comfortable with that line of thought. The John Birch wing of my family, from twenty somethings to the elderly patriarch, all college edjycated professionals, are solidly in Dr. Bens camp. They hate the Mooooooslim nigra in the white house but this is their nigra.
The patriarch has not spoken to me since Obama was first elected and Iâm currently persona non-grata with those of my generation for the audacity of questioning their shrieks that
*Hillary will be a disaster for our country*
These relatives are very authoritarian and I was not supposed to ask of then exactly how she would be a disaster.
They and many many others are hearing the dog whistles.
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I agree. This has the Bradley affect written all over it. Not saying they wonât run Carson but he wonât get the votes they anticipate.
Romney or Ryan.
The percentage shares depend on turn-out, which is not easy to predict.
Maybe, but Ryan just took the speaker ship,and Romney is out of the picture. It seems to me they would have to pick someone who is at least in the running to avoid a riot on the convention floor, but yes who they would pick is not written in stone Rubio is just one possibility
Bravo.
Why do Dems have to be âscaredâ of the latest crazy Republican to come down the pike? Republicans are on a death spiral. A couple deep red states elect/vote for some deep RED candidate/law and some on the left erupt into hair pulling terror. We are better than this. The way to win is to keep moving forward. The GOP is on the ropes. They are falling apart on the national stage almost nightly. We are succeeding. Letâs finish this and rebuild our Democracy.
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The one, in fact the ONLY requirement to be a Republican these days is that you must hate all Democrats. In fact the requirement is not only that you hate them but that you take the position that all Democrats are evil Christian hating communists out to destroy America.
Now the fact is that anyone who believes âChristiansâ in America are endangered and being discriminated against is obviously (as you should notice just from what you see driving down any street in any city/town/village of any size from Chicago to Hicksville) INSANE. But that is another matter.
The real issue as far as Carsonâs run for the GOP nomination is concerned is: Why do Republicans so hate Democrats?
Remembering that before 1964 when LBJ extended the benefits of the New Deal to African Americans the base of the GOP was the base of the Dem party, my view is that for most GOP voters Carson is a âBlack Friendâ they can support when it does not matter, before voting starts and it does not matter. Once voting starts, most GOP voters will abandon their Black Friend in favor of someone who is a racist.
In a presidential year, though, we get good turnout. Maybe not as good with Hillary as with Obama, but given that their base is dying off to the tune of a percentage point every four years or so, probably easily good enough against a weak Republican candidate. Question is, how does the party rebuild its state and local infrastructure so that the tea party doesnât take everything else in the off years?
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