The Real Ben Carson

Not a review of Ben Carson, A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties (Sentinel, 2015), xi + 240 pgs., hardcover.

It happens every four years. Candidates for president issue books to sucker people to vote for them using the written word just like they sucker people every day to vote for them using the spoken word.

One of the latest “presidential” books is by retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. The book is his second salvo, since he authored with the same publisher last year One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future.

I was going to review the book but decided against it after (1) seeing that it is yet another book by a conservative about the Constitution that he claims to revere but doesn’t follow, and (2) hearing Dr. Carson’s recent interview with Kai Ryssdal on “Marketplace.”

Also, recognizing that if we get defense wrong, nothing else matters, because we live in a hostile world. So you’re going to see our military capabilities improve quite substantially. You’re going to see us really taking care of our veterans rather than just talking about it. Recognizing that we have a 14 percent decrease in people applying for our volunteer military. That’s going to hurt us badly in the long run.

You’re going to see us beef up our cyber capabilities substantially, you’re going to see us respond to people who attack us in a way that they will never forget.

You’re going to see much more proactive stance towards someone like Putin, you know, we’re going to be much more active throughout the whole Baltic basin area, Eastern Europe, we’re going to reestablish missile defense program, we’re going to have more than one or two armored brigades in that area. We’re gonna stand up to him, every place in the Middle East, we’re not gonna back down.

We’re going to be taking a whole geopolitical strategy that is proactive, and not reactive.

Gee, I wonder why the world is so hostile? Could U.S. bombs, bullets, maiming, killing, invasions, occupations, drone strikes, and incessant meddling have anything to do with it? Although Carson wants every part of the federal budget trimmed by 3 to 4 percent, this obviously doesn’t include the military budget, not if “you’re going to see our military capabilities improve quite substantially.” The foreign policy of a President Carson would be even more reckless, belligerent, and meddling than it is now. He apparently not only wants to have another Cold War with Russia, but a hot one as well.

It doesn’t matter what good things Ben Carson says in his speeches or writes in his book about his faith, his family, taxes, the Constitution, Obamacare, President Obama, the economy, the debt ceiling, or the budget—he is a welfare/warfare statist just like your typical Republican constitutional conservative.