Los Angeles, CA -
Every two years, when election time rolls around, many
people, some of my friends included, go to the polls and vote for protest
candidates. People who have little or no chance of winning, but because the
electorate feels like nothing is being fixed, they choose not to vote for
either major party.
Sometimes they vote for Mickey Mouse, or Bugs Bunny, this
year they are voting for Donald Trump. Trump is the voice of the angry
Americans, people so fed up they are willing to try anything at all to fix the
system.
Some of Trump’s supporters say they want revenge on the
establishment for years of lies, others tell me they want entertainment, and
some just like to hear Trump continue to bash the political correctness that
many on both sides of the aisle are getting tired of. (Perhaps this is why
nothing short of shooting Bambi will cause Trump to fall in the polls.)
However, not all Americans are angry at the establishment or
want revenge. They are hurt, tired, and disillusioned and they don’t want
payback, they want healing. But they don’t naturally turn to the bombast of
Trump, but rather to gentler, kinder, some might even say gifted, hands; those
of Ben Carson.
Ever since he announced his candidacy, the mild mannered
Republican and former neurosurgeon has been a longshot candidate, however, he
has managed, save for a few scrapes at the beginning of his run, to avoid
incendiary and controversial rhetoric, and, for the most part, and instead talk
about his vision for America.
And that approach seems to be helping Carson along quite
well, in a poll a few days ago in Iowa; Ben Carson became the first person,
since July, to at least tie Donald Trump in any poll anywhere for the
nomination. Trump and Carson are, in that poll, tied at 23%.
While Carson is still a long shot, (he has less than half of
Trump’s support nationally, and way less money than many other candidates,) at
a time when pollsters tell us America is more divided along political lines
than at any time since the Civil War, he, a black Republican in a party accused
of not liking minorities, a non-career politician at a time when American’s are
fed up with career politicians, and a man who came from rags to riches at a
time when Americans feel the ruling class does not care about the plight of the
less-advantaged, Carson could possibly feel a lot of slots and begin a surge of
patriotism across the country. While he seems to be weak on economics and
foreign policy, it is not hard to see, at least at first glance, what Carson’s
supporters are looking at when they say his name in surveys.
It is almost as if he is another form of Donald Trump,
because Carson is certainly a crazy politician, to say the least. His ideas are
far out from the norm, and his stances are far right of the center. But he
isn’t brash or loud about it, and for all of the Americans that really think
the country could use a doctor right now rather than a Trump card, they feel
that Dr. Ben Carson is their man.
Andrew C. Abbott
No comments:
Post a Comment