So my nephew JP asked for my two-cents worth on Ben Carson's popularity, particularly, if I may read between the lines of his text, among social conservatives.
First, I don't think Carson is qualified to be president on the strength of his brilliant career in medicine alone, which is all he has. He's less qualified even than the effete, empty suit we toil under now.
Surgeon General? Probably.
He's saying a lot of socially popular stuff....you know, red meat for red-state voters, but how much of that can be translated into law, and more importantly, should be? I realize most social conservatives believe that their personal moral code is how everybody should be made to live, but that's not how a constitutional republic operates.
I'd like to see some specifics on how Carson's rhetoric would translate into policy. His statement yesterday on gay prison sex proving that homosexuality is a choice, suggests to me that he won't make it as far as Herman Cain did in the last cycle
Full disclosure: my personal belief regarding moral behavior and the Constitution: Anyone should be able to pursue happiness anyway they like, with constitutional protection so far as the following criteria are met:
1: that pursuit does not impede the pursuit of any one else
2: that pursuit is not harmful to that person or any other person
3: that pursuit is otherwise legal
2: that pursuit is not harmful to that person or any other person
3: that pursuit is otherwise legal
I don't have to agree with or participate in an activity in order to acknowledge that the person has a right to engage in it. In other words, my personal moral code is irrelevant to the Constitution and what should or shouldn't be allowed under the law.
I think social conservatives like Carson would go too far in imposing their personal moral codes, shared by most conservatives, on the general populace.
6 comments:
Some are urging him to run for the senate seat in Maryland that Mikulski is retiring from. I think he'd be a great senator and the fact that Maryland just elected a Republican governor suggests it's not an impossible quest.
No one is "less qualified" that Barack H. Obama. I don't know how your keyboard allowed you to type such words.
His on-paper credentials, law school and senate election, make him technically more qualified, but certainly his hostility toward, and transparent contempt for, everything "American" makes him eminently more loathsome as a leader.
I'm not saying I wouldn't vote for Carson, just that I think a governor or long-term representative might be a better choice. I don't think Carson would navigate the media well. I fear there would be statements like "prison makes you gay" and "I don't believe in evolution" daily and the media would effectively neutralize him with mockery.
Dr. Carson shares with BHO the only "qualification" that mattered for a lot of voters in 2008 and 2012. He does not share BHO's disdain for our country's founding.
That is true, but as a conservative, he'll be labelled an "OREO" or Uncle Tom by the media, Sharpton, Jackson, and probably by Obama himself and by Hillary's proxies.
Only an extreme leftist can get elected based solely on the color of his skin. Carson will have to come up with a lot more substance to back up the red-state rhetoric.
I'm sure you're right, Ed. I regret Colin Powell never ran when he was urged to do so in the 90's. I disagree with him on many issues, but he would have been a infinitely better "first" than BHO. He is at least a patriot.
That's true. I think he would have run but his wife feared he would be shot by a racist and put the kibosh on the idea.
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