When billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants immediately guaranteed an entertaining election season.
But as of late, the Donald has become a little stale. Maybe it’s because he’s beginning to self-censor now that he has a serious chance of winning the Republican nomination. Maybe he’s tired after months on the campaign trail. Or maybe we’re all just immune by now. How many times can you make an impromptu jab at Rosie O’Donnell before it becomes a cliché?
Enter Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon with the relaxed temperament and sleepy disposition, who may indeed be not only Trump’s political rival, but his comedic one as well.
Most recently, Carson made headlines by saying he was against abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. While this, on its own, isn’t exactly a revelatory position among Republican candidates, his reasoning is pure Carson.
"Think about this," he said NBC’s Meet the Press, when asked about his views on abortion.
"During slavery – and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say but I’m saying it – during slavery, a lot of slave-owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose.
"And what if the abolitionists had said, 'I don’t believe in slavery but you guys do whatever you want'? Where would we be?"
Yes. At a time when even Kurdish lawmakers are fighting for the rights of women who have been raped by Islamic State terrorists to get an abortion, America’s leading Republican is arguing the other way because…slavery happened?
But it’s not Carson’s only head scratcher. During that same interview, he defended allegations that he was "low-energy" by informing viewers that he once tried to stab someone.
His abortion reasoning isn’t even the first time he’s used a slavery analogy to argue against policies he disagrees with.
"Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," he said during a 2013 speech. "And it is in a way, it is slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government…"
To argue against gun control, he’s instead opted for comparisons to Nazi Germany.
"I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed," he told CNN earlier this month. "There’s a reason these dictatorial people take the guns first."
Hyperbolic reasoning aside, Carson does share similarly xenophobic views as Trump. But while the real estate mogul is concerned with immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border, the neurosurgeon is more concerned about Muslims stepping onto the White House lawn.
"I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," he told Meet the Press earlier this year. "I absolutely would not agree with that." He later clarified, saying that a Muslim could be president, but "you have to reject the tenets of Islam."
So for the record, who did give Carson a doctorate? That would be the University of Michigan. Way to go, Wolverines.
