Dr. Ben Carson has been getting a lot of attention from the conservative side of America since his critical speech at the president's prayer breakfast back in February. What a speech it was!
He spent most of his time discussing the importance of an educated populace in order for a free society to be successful - a point I passionately agree with. He went on, though, to talk about some other important policy issues such as deficit spending, tax code, and healthcare.
He approached these issues from a clearly conservative perspective: the debt is a major issue that needs to be reduced immediately, a flat tax makes more sense, and healthcare needs sensible reform that the Affordable Care Act does not provide. He gave his speech with passion and in the presence of the president, which many have interpreted to mean the man has courage.
At CPAC Carson joked about a run for the White House. We could debate how serious he is about doing it but if you tune in to the conservative media and talk to conservatives, there is a strong movement to give this guy a presidential run.
I will not pull any punches, pushing this guy to be president would be the stupidest idea the GOP could make.
My hope is that the party would be sensible enough not to do it, but given the candidates who showed up for the 2012 race and how the party has conducted themselves... really for the entire 21st century, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Carson in the running.
Why is Carson such a bad choice, you may ask. Simply put, the man is not a figure capable of winning the highest political seat in the world.
There are a lot of things that go into winning an election, even at the local level. I have had the privilege of studying how this is done with some brilliant political minds and one thing has been very clear to me - it's complicated. So I won't go into detail as to why specifically this it is a bad idea to have the first political campaign be one for the president.
Just apply some common sense to the matter. Politicians work for decades to build a coalition of volunteers and voters, establish their image, and craft legislation all in the hopes that one day they might live in the White House... and the vast majority of them fail. An untested, untrained, and previously unknown character like Ben Carson wouldn't stand a chance.
But I don't want to be completely negative on the man. In fact, many of the things he has said I agree with. My concern is that conservatives - who are without strong leadership - will prop him up to a position he is unable to hold. Let me offer an alternative. Let's try to make Carson an advocate for conservative policies outside of the political sphere.
This may seem confusing. After all, how can you discuss public policy and not be political? Well on one hand you can't but I want to introduce nuance to how we view our reality.
Often people like to lump any discussion of public policy into what is called "politics." These politics are in its most basic form a group of people separate from the daily lives of the non-political. The result of this is terrible on many levels but for this specific discussion it causes us to push people like Carson into running for office.
The result of thinking there is this gap of the political "haves" and "have-nots" means we think the only solution to our problems is to put "our guy" into a political appointment. So when the Dr. Carsons of the nation come out and speak passionately about policy we agree with we think, "Here is a man who gets it! And he's outside the corrupt political establishment! He's the ideal candidate!"
We make these leaps and bounds to conclusions that are just preposterous. I agree that Carson has spoken very well about some important policy issues, but I'm not about to elect the man. He has spent his career as a very successful doctor. I won't say he can never do politics, but he'll have to earn some political credentials before I can trust him. It's like hiring an electrician to fix your pipes.
Carson has proven that he is a good public speaker, though. That's the role I think conservatives need to ask him to fulfill - as an advocate for conservative policy. You see, you can be an effective voice for public policy without holding office. The man probably understands the medical system better than most everyone. That makes him an ideal person to advise senators and congressmen on medical legislation.
At the end of the day, a presidential run for Ben Carson would lead nowhere. I simply ask that conservatives stop this silly talk and focus on some legitimate candidates for the job - and there are quite a few. Let's place reasonable expectations of people and maybe, just maybe, we'll begin to see some effective change.
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