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Author: Olisa Maduegbuna

When all the ecstasy of the Trump phenomenon fades away, when the Donald commits one too many gaffes, one man will be waiting in the wings to be crowned Republican presidential nominee- Dr. Ben Carson. Contrary to mainstream pundits who still believe the natural line of succession will hold through the ever dependable Bush dynasty or the establishment ‘padawan’, Marco Rubio, Carson represents the sweet spot between cool competence and Tea Party evangelical notoriety. They speak the same language but his gentle tone is the antidote to the vitriol of Trump.

As softly as he speaks, Carson at 22% in the latest CNN/ORC poll gradually narrows the gap to Trump’s 27% (Bush and Rubio the closest candidates, both at 8%). A more recent Quinnipiac University poll now puts him in first place to win the Iowa Republican caucus. Seven out of the last ten winners of this first primary caucus have gone on to win the Republican nomination.

Beyond what the polls tell us, a more fascinating snapshot of the vitality of Carson’s mission to ‘Heal, Inspire, Revive” is the good doctor’s social media presence. By a country mile, at 4 million and counting he has the most Facebook likes out of the G.O.P. field. Many of these can be attributed of course to his international celebrity as a ‘rags to riches’ conjoined-twins-separating pioneering neurosurgeon. But the reason Carson will win the G.O.P. nomination is the unique aura he has projected through social media.

Carson and his team have crafted an atmosphere of good ol’ Christian family fireplace chat. Before bed time, answering carefully chosen Facebook questions from everyday Americans, Carson has constructed an image of the wise compassionate American Dad. He is Bill Cosby before the scandal. He is the Jimmy Carter of the Right. Ned Flanders goes to Washington. The comment sections on these nightly posts are flooded with shows of support.  Bible verses are quoted and prayers are offered to the altar to keep dear Dr. Carson incorruptible and upstanding. This is what Facebook means for sexagenarian Bible Belt Americans. As Bernie Sanders rallies young wild sacrilegious college students, Carson has an army of evangelical pensioners.

Yet beneath this veneer of Christ-like benevolence and wisdom lies the sinister ambition of a man betraying all of his long-held principles of scientific integrity and veracity- all in an act to exploit human prejudice on his way to the White House. Out of all presidential candidates across both parties, no campaign has engaged more in factual distortion and outright lying than Carson’s (yes including Trump!). Politifact rates 84% of his statements in the categories of ‘mostly false’, ‘false’ and ‘pants on fire’. Compare this to the equivalent 75% rating for two scrupulous mild mannered uber-progressives, Michelle Bachman and Mr. Trump himself.

This is all the more dangerous as Carson is a world-renowned award winning physician. Carson by virtue of his distinguished medical career commands an academic legitimacy that the reality show famous Trump and the other G.O.P. unhinged will never muster. In the wake of the faux Planned Parenthood scandal, he purported that there is no medical research that “can’t be done without fetal tissue” as the technique itself “very much under-delivered.” Actually, these research specimens have been crucial in the development of vaccines for polio, rubella and hopefully soon Alzheimer’s. Carson only failed to mention that he had used fetal tissue from aborted babies in a 1992 paper. On the second G.O.P debate stage, Carson broke his Hippocratic Oath. He bore false testimony to Trump’s dangerous claims that parents should cut down on the number and proximity of vaccines for their children. In fact a 2013 paper by the National Academy of Medicine categorically concluded there is “no evidence that the [current vaccine] schedule is unsafe.” No scientific paper is required to disprove Carson’s diatribe that “Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery”.

If Carson’s medical malpractice is not abhorrent enough, what is more ludicrous is his verbal diarrhoea on the subject of gun control- all in an attempt to attract the NRA constituency. In the wake of the recent Oregon mass shootings, Carson invoking his childhood in crime-riddled impoverished Detroit said that “I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” He then went on to claim that the Holocaust would not have occurred if the Jews had the right to bear arms. This does not only demean the sacrifice made by many Jews like those in the Warsaw Ghetto of 1943 to resist the Nazis but it also illogically assumes that a small band of civilians with light arms would have been capable of defeating a large police state equipped with modern tanks, aircraft and destroyer ships. Carson would even poke more fun at the plight of the Oregon victims. In his words, “I would not just stand there and let him shoot me”. He would have said “Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me but he can’t get us all.”

One might consider this standard rhetoric in the post-Tea Party Republican Party, but in further buttressing his pro-gun rights credentials Carson went on not only to make another blatant lie but something worse than a lie- a blunder. The good doctor in an attempt to give a lesson on a common sense solution as to how he would deal with a mass shooter did the Christ-like thing of using a parable. Carson gave an account of how when approached in a Baltimore “Popeye’s organisation” by an armed robber, he responded “I believe that you want the guy behind the counter” to which the robber followed his instruction. This story is incredibly dubious because Ben Carson is a self-professed vegetarian being a Seventh Day Adventist (Popeye’s sells fried chicken) but also due to the fact that the Baltimore Police Department tried and failed to find a police report of this robbery in their records. Even if one were to take Carson’s story at face-value, it beggars belief how Carson who claims to be pro-life, would be proud of such a callous act as directly putting another individual in danger in order to relieve his own predicament.

Perhaps Carson has meant well with all these fabrications. Perhaps in the laxity of retirement he has no recollection of his medical training. Perhaps he now knows no better. Perhaps this former neurosurgeon is just the dumbest smart man in America. Perhaps then these blunders would be excusable. What is certainly inexcusable is Carson’s recent foray into hate speech with comments about Islam and the American constitution being incompatible.

Carson stated that “he would not advocate” for a Muslim President unless he was willing to “subjugate” Islamic sharia teachings to the “values and principles of America”. The American constitution clearly states that no religious test shall be used for office. But the constitution is also at its core a collection of many principles of liberty and democracy like free speech, freedom of conscience and the right to vote. Is it possible according to Carson’s conception of Islam that it is a faith so barbaric to be intrinsically against all the liberal democratic principles entailed in the constitution? According to Carson’s logic, Muslims rather than taking part in the democratic election process are a fifth column seeking to destroy American democracy and impose a sharia law dictatorship.

Carson’s defense against these comments being construed as hate speech was an attack on the notion of political correctness. However, there is a big difference between being passionately politically incorrect and purely being inflammatory and hateful. It is true that in today’s world a disproportionate share of global terrorist activity is committed by radical Islamists but within Islam these forces are clearly a tiny minority.

Moreover there is an extreme hypocrisy amongst religious zealots, particularly far-right evangelicals like Carson in exalting the Christian faith above all others. They claim the American constitution is rooted in Christian values only when it serves their purposes. When the Supreme Court rules that Hobby Lobby may decide to not insure their non-Catholic employees with contraception, this is the constitution God hand delivered to Thomas Jefferson. But when the same court rules states may not bar gay couples from equal marriage, there are cries of judicial tyranny and constitutional overreach.

All in a desire to gain the highest office in the land, this is the web of duplicity, distortion and deceit Dr. Ben Carson has been entangled in. In my childhood, Ben Carson was hailed in the black community as a paragon of achievement. His books, ‘Gifted Hands’ and ‘Think Big’ were inspirational. His film portrayal by Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. has most likely touched so many black men and women across the world.

This is not to claim Dr. Carson is an ‘Uncle Tom’ or that there is an oxymoron in being a black Republican. My only wish is that Ben Carson seeks truth. Dr. Carson can separate conjoined twins but now chooses not to separate fact from fiction. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit the soul? What good is a man with a tarnished legacy?

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