Straw polls conducted on the Hillsdale College campus after the second Republican primary debate on Sept. 16 showed that students favor not the expected politicians, but a candidate with different experience: Ben Carson, retired pediatric neurosurgeon.
Twenty-three percent of students said they would vote for Carson the next day. Rubio and Carly Fiorina followed with 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively. National polls show a similar trend. A recent NBC poll shows Carson trailing Donald Trump by only one point.
But voters should be wary of Carson. He has neither the skills valued in a presidential candidate nor are his stances on issues clear. His gaping lack of political experience should concern them.
Ironically, many Americans support Carson because, like Trump, he is an “outsider” and not a career politician. Many consider him personable with realistic visions rather than rehearsed stump speeches, and his practicality contrasts with the aloofness of stereotyped politicians.
But voters who distrust Trump should scrutinize Carson as well. The two are too alike. The loud one is blunt and brash, but the silent one could be just as dangerous, and his meekness now could cover for ignorance on vital issues later.
Many voters became further disillusioned with Carson after hearing his perplexing stance on abortion. Though he stated that he is “unequivocally, completely, positively opposed to abortion,” he has referred women to clinics for abortions in cases of severe medical problems and performed tests on tissues of aborted babies in 1992 (although he did not have a role in procuring the tissues). In a Fox News interview, he said that he believes life begins when the heart starts beating, but reiterated later that life begins at conception.
Carson has, however, supported bans on abortions and has urged legislators to back the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. Carson’s pro-life stance is now clear after growth and clarification, but the initial inconsistency and inability to vocalize views coherently is too hazy for comfort and a mark of inexperience.
Carson certainly has a captivating life story, though. Raised in a poor, single-parent home in Detroit, Carson attended Yale University, then worked as a school-bus driver and a crane operator before his acceptance to the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He began a successful career as director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children Center, which he did for 29 years. He served on President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. He successfully separated conjoined twins, as well as revived the performance of a rare kind of brain surgery in children.
The event that seemingly launched Carson’s “political” career was his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, where he spoke for 27 minutes on the failures of Obamacare and the current administration. Since then, support for his presidential nomination has only grown.
During the first GOP debate in August, Carson responded to criticism of his political inexperience: “Experience comes from a large number of different arenas,” he said. “America became a great nation early on not because it was flooded with politicians… but with people who understood the value of personal responsibility and hard work.” Though just a few months earlier he was unfamiliar with major political parties in Israel and suggested the Baltic States are not members of NATO, he boasted in the same debate that he was the only one on stage who had separated siamese twins.
But does this qualify him for president of the United States, or is he just in the right place at the right time? If Carson can run, can anyone with varied experience, fame, and some interest in politics run? Carson told ABC News Sunday that he would give hip-hop star Kanye West, who announced intentions for a presidential run in 2020, a chance as president.
“I was extremely impressed with his business acumen,” he said. For Carson, it seems this is presidential qualification.
No one seriously doubts Carson’s expertise as a doctor or his competency to head a major medical division, but Americans should suspect his ability to lead a nation. He might know his way around the brain, but voters should worry that, with his non-existent political record, he won’t know his way around the White House.
