Dr. Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump this morning one week after ending his own presidential campaign. Carson’s move is seen by many as a play for the White House as a prospective vice presidential running mate to Donald Trump. Trump added fuel to that fire, saying that Carson would play a “big, big part” in Trump’s campaign
Back in February when the Seventh-day Adventist retired neurosurgeon was still in the Republican primary race, he told Fox Business News that if he were asked to consider being Trump’s running mate, “I certainly would sit down and discuss it with him,” Carson said.
“I would have to have major philosophical alignment with whoever it was. I would have to have guarantees that I could do some substantial things,” he said. In his endorsement of Trump, Carson said the two have "buried the hatchet," likely a reference to Trump's calling Carson's Seventh-day Adventist faith into question. It was just "political stuff," Carson said.
Despite a Carson’s rapidly declining poll numbers following his brief moment atop the GOP field in October, Carson did lead one poll--a Morning Consult survey of likely voters asking whom Trump (assuming he wins the GOP nomination) should choose as running mate. Carson led that poll with 11%. In the poll, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio took 9% each, and Chris Christie, who also dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump, garnered 8% of the tally, as did Ohio governor John Kasich. The poll might not mean much; 38% of respondents had no opinion or declined to state a preference.
Since announcing a week ago that he was dropping out, Carson has served as national chairman of My Faith Votes, a Christian nonprofit aimed at getting Evangelicals to vote.
Should Trump win the nomination, and should he select Ben Carson to run with him on the Republican ticket, Dr. Carson’s bid for Washington D.C. will be invigorated, thanks to Trump’s coattails.
Jared Wright is Managing Editor of SpectrumMagazine.org.
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Carson’s justification for Trump’s behavior made me want to say, “Will the real Donald Trump please stand up?” I am thinking the same thing could be said for Dr. Carson. Will the real Dr. Carson please stand up?
Maybe that poisonous air inside the beltway has affected his thinking. He’s a good man, and he can do much good, but I think he would be more effective doing what he knows best. I could see him as Surgeon General.
He’s a betting man, but not always a winner. He’s hoping to ride in to a big political position with Trump. If another Repub. is nominated, he’ll switch to him quicker than a cat after a mouse.
My son had huge respect for Ben Carson before he entered politics. It diminished significantly when he discovered what a buffoon Carson was when it came to his own political knowledge and acumen. And it has now completely evaporated with Carson’s support for Trump.
This shows there was a good reason to not support Carson for President! It is embarrassing to even be connected to him by belonging to the same denomination! Seriously Carson can support Trump with a straight face?!
Donald Trump called Ben Carson pathological and compared him to a child molester. Trump attacked and mocked Carson’s SDA affiliation. And Trump found common cause with David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist organizations that a man of Carson’s intellect should find abhorrent. Carson’s endorsement of Trump is a betrayal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, black citizens and all other Americans who oppose the fascism of Trump. In the pornographic vernacular of Trump, Carson has to our deep regret debased himself by “falling to his knees” before Trump.
But Carson is being true to his role. In the Republican Party, the candidate for president that fills the slot reserved for a Ben Carson, a Herman Cain, or an Alan Keyes must attempt to do one important thing: assuage by his or her candidacy the perception that the Party and its nominee for president are not as frightening, dangerous, and racist as they appear to be. No doubt, Carson’s endorsement of Trump perpetuates the delusion that Trump’s fascism can be tolerated by those committed to our constitutional democracy.
As it may play out, the Carson’s statement “I would have to have major philosophical alignment with whoever it was" and his endorsement of Trump may actually be a prevalent view of a large portion of the church. By denying women’s ordination the institutional SDA church endorses a soft sexism. By continuing to perpetuate a “separate but equal” black church infrastructure the SDA church endorses a soft racism. By affiliating Islam with the the power that will be oppress God’s people the SDA church endorses a soft xenophobia.
Perhaps this endorsement of Trump’s full frontal assault on the morality of this nation is is just a reflection of what is in the fear-based hearts of many SDAs. John in his last letters to the church warns us that the spirit of the antichrist is fear and yet we see today a fear-based SDA (Ben Carson), embrace Fear Personified (Trump). Could it be that Ben Carson is simply an archetype of a large percent of SDAs?
Those following the data coming from our own SDA researchers, show fault lines between those on in firm control of our institutional church who embody a fear-based theology and those fighting to overturn fear (or who are quietly leaving the church). If our church leadership does not confront and speak out against the evil being promoted in this election cycle then this election might actually be the earthquake that splits our church.
Dr. Ben Carson is winnowing. Donald Trump secures the right to cross swords with Hillary Clinton in the fall. After all the retired neurosurgeon is the cerebellum. What not as easy for us to decipher Carson intuitive 1,237 delegates begins to look more and more attainable for Trump. Every physician…had his favorite disease. I wonder what favorite disease Carson saw so irresistible in Trump?
THERE IS A CAMPAIGN AGAINST DONALD TRUMP STRONG, as there was ON YOUR DAY AGAINST RONALD REAGAN …
BUT SOMEONE TO DO WORSE THAN BARACK OBAMA OR BILL CLINTON? …
Millions of Republican voters can not be so wrong. Although Donald Trump is clearly xenophobic, misogynist and show little knowledge of the reality of the political function, it seduces them. Why? You do not really have any good attribute, as is clear from reading the American and international press? 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view millionaire. But this reporter believes that the imbalance in coverage of the Republican candidate is exaggerated, and that prevents understand why tops polls of intent Republican vote in the United States. From here we will exercise the devil’s advocate and look for positive qualities in the political most vilified since perhaps Richard Nixon.
Our task begins with a jug of cold water. When I ask Kenneth Prewitt, professor of Public Policy at Carnegie School New Yorker, his response is sharp as a knife, as if the simple question would have offended: or a hello or goodbye, just one: "There is nothing positive in reference to the candidacy for president, "Donald Trump. Point. Either the rich and eccentric politician is the devil himself, or perhaps the prestigious political scientist is unable to make a dispassionate analysis of the situation. That in itself is proof that Donald Trump is, above all, an extremely polarizing character: or love (33% of those surveyed by Gallup) or hate it (60% versus 53% of animus harvesting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton).
"There are two different Donald Trump. The you see on stage and one that is very cerebral, sits down and thinks everything carefully, "said the prestigious American neurosurgeon and a man of moral, religious and ethical principles, Ben Carson …
