I don't know what Ben Carson thinks he's bringing to the Republican presidential candidate table. His thoughts on race and police violence are, for example,
not terribly innovative.
"We have to talk to both the police and we have to talk to the community," said Carson. "Both of them have to accept some degree of humility. The community has to admit that not everyone in that community is an angel."
Out of simple curiosity: Why? I can think of no community that will insist that everyone in that community is an angel, we will all stipulate that not all people are angels, but when we are talking about unarmed men or teens or preteens getting shot or choked to death by police in circumstances that clearly did not warrant summary execution, how does this pertain? This seems like a conspicuous misuse of the
both sides do it talking point, if not a implied suggestion that anyone who is not a perfect angel can damn well expect to be shot dead if that's what an officer of the law feels like doing. It is neither helpful nor insightful.
Likewise, if Carson is going to play the "we conservatives hereby declare that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a conservative, so shut up" card, he's going to have to bring something less hoary than the Abraham Lincoln was a Republican talking point.
"I suspect [MLK's] biggest criticisms would be that [modern Republicans] have not really reached out very much," said Carson. "I think probably his second criticism of the Republican Party [would be] that they don’t talk about what they’ve done. They don’t talk about the fact that the Republican Party was established as the abolition party. [...] They don't talk about the fact that Frederick Douglass was a Republican, that Booker T. Washington was a Republican, that George Washington Carver was a Republican, Martin Luther King, Sr. was a Republican, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. [...]"
On the other hand, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s biggest criticism of the modern Republican Party might be the Republican presumption that he and all other black Americans were such staggering morons that they would be willing to ditch their struggles for civil rights, voting rights, fair wages, desegregated schools and so forth if someone had only pointed out that the party viciously fighting all of those things could once boast Abraham Lincoln and Booker T. Washington. Yes, the parties have switched stances over these long decades. You may have heard about it, given that it has been the single most defining feature of electoral politics in the last half-century.
I do not like how the Republican presidential race is shaping up. It is shaping up to be dull, and rote, and stupid, none of which is good for America regardless of what party you attach yourself to because America does not need any more political campaigns to be dull, rote, or stupid. The point of having newcomers like Mr. Dr. Ben Carson pop onto the scene would be to shake things out of their usual routine, which cannot be done when the newcomers spout the same achingly tired, insipid nonsense that the party stalwarts have drawled out for years. All right, Mr. Dr. Ben Carson, we've established you want to be president. And you would be better at the job than a collection of needlepointed motivational quotes because why, precisely?