Carson Endorses the Demagogue

On Friday, I watched yet another bizarre scene from an already bizarre election cycle: The affable but hopelessly vacant Ben Carson endorsing the demagogic real estate developer who once said of Carson that he had a “pathological temper” as a child and compared him to a child molester.

.. This is the same Ben Carson who has inveighed against the “purveyors of division,” who played a video at his presidential campaign announcement in Detroit in which the narrator said in part:

“If America is to survive the challenges of the modern world, we need to heal, we need to be inspired, and we need to revive the exceptional spirit that built America. Never before have we been so closely connected to each other, but more divided as a country.”

.. Indeed, the very words white supremacy, privilege, racism, bias, sexism, misogyny, patriarchy, homophobia, and poverty are seen as divisive.

.. This is the same Ben Carson who called President Obama a psychopathwho is possibly guilty of treason and was, oh my, “raised white.” He has accused President Obama of working to “destroy this nation” and compared Obama’s supporters to Nazi sympathizers.

..

This is the same Ben Carson who hascompared women who have abortions to slave owners, who said Obamacare is theworst thing since slavery — yes, he’s obsessed with slavery — and that being gay is a choicebecause people go to prison straight and leave gay. On the issue of whether a Muslim should allowed to be president, he said:

“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”