Because you believe just as I do …–Ben Carson
A political mailing came addressed to me today from Ben Carson. Carson kindly included a picture of himself. Carson assured me that we share each others views. He included a Newsmax article by Sandy Fitzgerald dated May 4, 2015 giving 12 reasons for supporting his candidacy which are summarized here. How many of them do readers agree are good reasons to favor Carson?
- He’s a newcomer: Carson has never run for a public office …
- He’s not politically correct: He often speaks out against the evil of political correctness …
- He’s for a flat tax: Carson has often spoken in favor of a flat tax to replace the nation’s current tax structure, including citing the Bible in his arguments. …
- He is a fierce Obamacare foe: As a world class surgeon, Carson says health insurance companies should be turned into utilities with profit limits, and has even brought controversy by equating the Affordable Care Act with “slavery.”
- He’s a free-market advocate: He points to the deregulation of Wall Street in the 1990s as the root cause of the financial crisis.
- He’s for individualism and independence: Even though his family relied on food stamps while he was young, he says President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society era started the steady fall of the country’s individualism and independence.
- He’s got guts: Carson’s launch can be traced back to February 2013, when he delivered his fiery speech at the National Prayer Breakfast challenging President Barack Obama on health care, taxes, spending, and the country’s direction — all with the president and first lady sitting just a few feet away.
- He’s got a real rags to riches story: With the support and prodding of his mother, he rose from poor grades, a single-parent home, and poverty to attend Yale University and medical school at the University of Michigan.
- He’s a bonafide genius: He became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center …
- He’s used to the corporate world: Carson has served on corporate boards including Kellogg Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. …
- He backs social conservatism: Carson is a staunch social conservative who opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage, views he attributes to his personal faith as a practicing Christian.
- He’s a loyal husband and family man: Carson, who has three sons, is rarely without his wife, Candy, by his side. …
There are many issues not addressed in Carson’s letter. I found nothing about education, protecting the environment, the Federal budget, or foreign policy. Like JFK, he calls for sacrifice; like Jimmy Carter, he suggests that his Christian faith is an important qualification.
I found No. 5 above rather confusing. If Carson is a free market advocate, why would he think deregulation would lead to financial crisis? There is little information in Carson’s letter about economics other than this: “We must spur job growth by lowering and simplifying taxes on both businesses and individuals.”
Carson’s fascinating letter is a list of loosely connected vignettes; whoever composed it evidently has no use for paragraphs.
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/ben-carson-good-president-reasons/2015/05/04/id/642490/
New NY 23rd 
Carson is a jumbled mess . His campaign reflects that. I am not sure why he considers having no experience a positive selling point. Would I want to go to a person who had no training or experience as a brain surgeon for an operation?
Like Trump, he has “ideas” or “thoughts”. But his “plans” do not have the necessary details. The details are either missing or don’t add up. And equating the ACA with “slavery”? I think more than a few slaves would have loved to have health insurance!
Both JFK and Carter asked Americans to sacrifice. Try that today. I don’t recall Carter ever suggesting that Christian faith is a qualification for the office. He was a religious man who was very careful to separate religion from government. In fact, he did not even allow religious services in the White House.
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I think you are right about Carter, but didn’t he appeal to evangelicals for support on the basis of his faith, that he was one of them?
Carson’s letter says he believes that God has a plan for us; presumably one that he, Carson, is privy to and would act to implement.
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I think Carter, as a southern Baptist, received a lot of support form Evangelicals, but he never cultivated it. I do remember his famous Playboy interview and talking about “lusting in my heart” got a lot of religious folks “aroused”.
God has a plan for me. I have to do the dishes and fix the broken door frame. She must be obeyed.
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😀
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For having such a brilliant mind for brain surgery, Ben Carson appears to lack understanding of most all other aspects of the human experience, including his own childhood. However, Carson isn’t the only Republican devotee who’s families were raised with government assistance – yet want to take all those programs and do major surgery on them.
Points no. 2 and 7 go well together in terms of a certain inappropriate style Carson has attempted to portray. Many in the GOP get big points for rudeness to the President’s face – so that doesn’t set Carson apart particularly. Mainly, he appears to me to be in a half dream state in the interviews I’ve seen. Last, it’s not surprising that one of the points of the letter was not religion – Carson has been the butt of many jokes from his expounding on Biblical “truths”. One really does doubt that the great Pyramids were used to store grain.
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If the pyramids were not used to store grain why do the tops come off?
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Religion is alluded to in reason no. 11 which suggests Carson might seek to force his views on others. Also in his letter Carson writes:
And here is my solemn promise to you: I will always honor our Judeo-Christian values, the Constitution, and the promise of the American Dream.
And again:
Why would I travel to the point of exhaustion to talk and listen to the American people?
Because my family and I believe God has a plan for us. He has a plan for this great nation. And He has a plan for our children and grandchildren
Much as in Jeb Bush’s fundraising appeal, Carson’s suggests that the reader shares his views without clearly saying what they are.
https://newny23rd.com/2015/07/22/jebs-fundraising-letter/
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