>“By the time I reached ninth grade, mother had made such strides that she received nothing but food stamps. She couldn’t have provided for us and kept up the house without that subsidy.” In other words, while youre pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, dont pretend you made your own boots, and make sure there are boots for the next guy. (Im trying to get my Dr Ben Carson character analysis worked through now, because Im not sure how much time he has in the limelight.) Now he says: >When you rob someone of their incentive to go out there and improve themselves, you are not doing them any favors. When you take somebody and pat them on the head and say, ‘There, there, you poor little thing. … Let me give you housing subsidies, let me give you free health care... But welfare didnt destroy the incentive for his own mother to go out and make things better for her and her family. Someone said to him: There, there, you poor little thing, have some food stamps and free eyeglasses. What makes him different from all the other welfare recipients? Because there IS a difference. He made it to John Hopkins and most didnt. But this means he faces a dilemma: Either he (1) is really different, in which case he is morally obligated to discount his own rare success, and support policies that make a difference for those who lack the ability to rise to success. IOW, to be more Democrat than Republican, to throw money away on welfare, to give the man a fish who cant learn to fish for himself. Or (2) he must explain why he made it while others just like him didnt. And how to change the system to allow more average welfare recipients to escape. Something even the experts dont seem to know. And of course, isnt possible if your goal is merely to reduce or eliminate welfare. This is as fair as I think I can make it for Dr Carson. Sure seems like massive hypocrisy and blind spots to me, but I am all ears if he decides to improve his game. Unfortunately right now he tailors his message to people who dont want to think critically; they just want their beliefs affirmed. Which is fine as a first political step to get name recognition and sell books. But you need the charisma of a Reagan if youre going to pull that off nationally.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 05:09:40 +0000
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