Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has done some amazing things. He started off an inner-city kid from Detroit with poor grades and a violent temper. After turning his life around, he graduated from Yale. He landed a spot in Johns Hopkins’ neurosurgery residency. He was the first surgeon to separate conjoined twins who were attached at the head. He and his wife started a scholarship fund to help students pay for college. President George W. Bush awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carson also wrote six bestselling books.
He does not, however, have political experience.
Despite being new to the game in Washington, Carson has been creeping closer to Republican front-runner Donald Trump. According to one poll, during the time it took Trump to climb from 23 percent to 26 percent, Carson leapt from six percent to 23 percent. If trends continue in the same direction, Ben Carson may soon become the leader of the Republican pack.
Carson believes “it is a very good idea for physicians, scientists, engineers, and others (who are) trained to make decisions based on facts and empirical data to get involved in the political arena.”
His politeness and level headedness separate Carson from Trump. His lack of political experience separates him from everyone else.
Many think his lack of experience is helping Carson’s candidacy, rather than hurting it. America is sick of career politicians who far too often seem to do what is best for them and for the companies lobbying them. Carson has an undeniable freshness. He carries the air of a good man who hasn’t been spoiled by the filth of Washington.
Carson has some nice ideas. He doesn’t want insurance companies to work on a for-profit basis. He thinks the government should provide catastrophic care insurance, which would cover pricy treatments such as long-term cancer care. He thinks the monitoring of US citizens that has taken place since 9-11 went too far in invading privacy.
He doesn’t, however, believe global warming is caused by humanity. He doesn’t think women should be able to choose to have an abortion. He opposes “any efforts to weaken the 2nd Amendment.” And he would directly attack ISIS.
I like Carson. The pre-med student in me would be thrilled if I ran into him on the street. Overall, he seems like he would be a nice person to chat with. But the nicest thing about Carson is not his platform. It is not what he would do if he was president. The most interesting part about Carson is that he is not a career politician.
In the early days of our country we had farmers, schoolteachers and lawyers become president. Nowadays it seems as though you have to be a career politician, be wealthy and have family connections in order to be president. How many Bush family members have run for president now? How many Clintons?
Political experience is important, and Carson would be a lot more of an attractive candidate if he had some type of experience. However, it’s nice to see that Carson, an intelligent man with a successful career in neurosurgery, still has a chance of becoming president.
Anyone can become president. That’s something we tell children, but as those children grow up they begin to suspect they’ve been lied to. Carson’s success as a candidate is a testament to the fact that yes, any citizen can grow up to be president.
