Researching Ben Carson’s presidential campaign further is going to be the basis for the expository essay I write. I like that I am focusing on something current because I can pull information straight out of the headlines and use sources that I’ve worked with a lot for debate. I’m thinking that I may research the current American right wing. It is absolutely absurd. In talking to my neighbor from London at a Mother’s Day dinner he explained that being “conservative” in Britain is nothing like being conservative here. In America we have a war-hungry and quite frankly bigoted right wing. Of course there are some reasonable conservatives, but the politicians dominating the 2016 campaign need to appeal to their voters who fall into this unique American far right.
From my preliminary research it looks like Ben Carson should stick to medicine. According to Bloomberg Ben Carson is extremely unclear about how judicial review and the whole process of checks and balances (Bloomberg). The article mentions the precedent set by Lincoln in wanting to disregard the egregious Dred Scott decision made by the supreme court. Critics of Carson highlight that he wants to become president and shrink the role of government, eliminating some of the programs that have gotten him to where he is. A photo made by liberal opposition reads “Tea Party icon Ben Carson is running for president in order to ‘eliminate dependency on government’ But he doesn’t mention that he grew up in public schools, got public housing and food stamps, got free glasses from a government program, was helped by affirmative action and got pell grants for college. Hypocrisy, much?” This is propaganda and I know that because many of these facts are simply not true. The website “politifact” which fact checks the comments made by politicians checked this message with Carson’s autobiography and found that it is false that he got free glasses and it is impossible to determine if affirmative action played a role in his admission to Yale. The hypocrite argument is an interesting one though because Carson did rely heavily on public services.
When Carson responded to this argument he said “This is a blatant lie. I have no desire to get rid of safety nets for people who need them. I have a strong desire to get rid of programs that create dependency in able-bodied people." This quote could be the spark for my research. The American far right constantly complains about how we spend too much money unnecessarily and of course they believe in principles of small government. But I am curious what Carson and other right wingers believe are “programs that create dependency in able-bodied people” (Politifact). Carson has one of the worst plans for healthcare ever created. He thinks that we should revoke medicare because people should have privatized and government subsidized health savings accounts. Salon reported earlier this week that Carson is actually making the party look worse by running for president because when asked about important policy questions his answers are obscure to say the least (Salon). Another interesting direction for my research could be into the change in identity that happens to politicians. Anyone who dedicates that kind of time to appealing to as many people as they can must adjust their personality in ways they otherwise would not. I have to wonder if Carson actually believes in right wing medical policy or if he just needs to be the Tea Party poster boy because those people have encouraged him to run for president. If I do find sufficient information of the change of identity that comes with political fame, or something along that line, I think that is what I’ll do.
I was thinking about that myself -- about Carson's reasons for running. What's at stake here? Seems strategic, maybe? I will be eager to see what you uncover. I also want to point out that it seems my ploy worked... ;-)
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