# Would you rather have Ben Carson as president right now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 4, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867 "2018-01-04T20:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/61 "2018-01-06T14:00:57Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > You’re addressing Trump’s optics, which are probably a valid distinction to make. But in terms of substance, I doubt that Ben Carson would be necessarily any better. Instead of someone pandering to religious ideologues and other types of extremists, we would, in fact, have a religious ideologue - and an anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and anti-minority one at that. And no, the fact that Ben Carson is black wouldn’t make him much less anti-minority, either. Maybe a little less anti-black, I suppose, but like Clarence Thomas, Carson seems to have contempt for blacks who aren’t wealthy like he is. Hey, I think we all agree Carson would be terrible, we’re just saying he would be a little better than Trump. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/62 "2018-01-06T14:20:08Z")
n/m ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/63 "2018-01-06T16:22:01Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Hey, I think we all agree Carson would be terrible, we’re just saying he would be a little better than Trump. Would he? I genuinely don’t know. He’s soft-spoken and not prone to outbursts on social media, or apparently even awake most of the time, but there is really little evidence to judge his leadership ability or motivations; the only public office he has ever held is his current position as Secretary of Health and Human Services, at which he has been spectacularly characterless even by the unremarkable precident of that office and his most newsworthy action to date was being stuck in an elevator at a housing project he was touring. He is, however, and acknowledged apocalypter, a believer in the literal translation of Genesis, generally anti-science and pro-conspiracy theorist, and his major breaks with his otherwise firm Seventh Day Adventist faith are in rejecting the tenets of pacificism and separation of church and state. In other words, he’s a religious nutter who rejects the things that would keep said nuttery from influencing his actions as an executive leader. At least I know Trump is a hypocritical piece of shit when he mumbles his way theough some evangelist tract or makes bombastic threats crudely drawn from Old Testament parables. He doesn’t actually believe or want the Apocalypes to come in his lifetime, even if he would like his legacy to be the first President to win a nuclear war in the 21st century. Carson, on the other hand, might gleefully order a nuclear attack and await the angels to lift him and his fellow annihilationists fundamentalists bodily to Heaven. No thanks, Monte, I’ll pick door #3. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/64 "2018-01-06T17:35:04Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Dude, Carson defines abnormal. The dude is one standard deviation away from being proof of extraterrestrial life. He’s the guy the _Left Behind_ fans think is “kinda out there”. He’s basically on his own coordinate system beyond that of space and time. The ghost of Rod Serling is his advance man. If you entered a portal into his brain you’d be deposited around a black hole somewhere in the constellation of Cygnus. I’m not sure how Carson would handle North Korea, or immigration reform, or the opiod crisis, but I’m morally sure that his solutions with have the singular virtue of not only never having been tried bit not even comprehensible to a rational person. And yet, the SDA contingent would still vote for him right down the line. > > Stranger _contemplates magnificence_ _collapses in helpless guffaws_ ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/65 "2018-01-07T23:25:44Z")
At least Carson would not be the darling of the white supremacists, but I think **Stranger’s** posts have convinced me. Carson is even less wired into reality that the orange moron. And that is a high (or is it low?) bar to clear. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/66 "2018-01-08T15:44:31Z")
Oh come on, there are too many intermediate steps required to label a brain surgeon an ‘idiot savant.’ In either case, I’d rather have Carson. Everyone up in arms 24/7/365 is exhausting. I think he could grow into the job, has the appropriate temperament, and not be so exhausting. Even if he’s “out there”, we have checks and balances for being “out there”. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/67 "2018-01-08T16:08:56Z")
”Appropriate temperment”? He generally seems to be somnolescent until he erupts with some kind of bizarre claim about the Eyptian pyramids or the Muslim plot to infiltrate the government and turn the United States into an Islamic state. He’s an avowed apocalypter who espouses a literal belief in Biblical Creationism and regularly opines against any scientific research or teaching that contradicts this. And the GOP having ‘their’ black President would give credence in the minds of some that they do not have racists high in their ranks, despite the fact that Carson himself is a birther and favors segregation. Aside from the Supreme Court and the Congressional override of the Presidential veto, there are very few “checks and balances” against abuse of executive authority, and that authority has expanded greatly in both scope and effect since the Constitution was originally ratified. Even if Carson himself isn’t a danger, his pliability, lack of skepticism, and gross inexperience would make him a ripe target for malevolent ‘advisors’ using his credulity to their own ends. There is a lot of damage a wantonly malicious or manipulated President could do, and not much that can be done to stop it short of removal by impeachment or 25th Amendment provisions. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/68 "2018-01-08T16:37:48Z")
The discussion isn’t about if he’d be any good. It’s about if he’d be better than Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/69 "2018-01-08T17:46:17Z")
At least with the human circus peanut currently occupying the Oval Office, the degree of abnormality with which he behaves is evident, and despite the evangelicals and conservatives that boosted him in the hope that he would promote their agenda, Trump has basically pursued his own (if disjointed) plan, often resulting in gross obstructionism even despite that his nominal party has virtually total control of the legislature. With Carson, who the fuck knows what he’d do or who he’d be beholden to, but his deep apocalyptic and conspiracy believes make him suggestible and detached from the reality of consequences, and he probably wouldn’t be tweeting out his stream of consciousness for everyone to see just how unsuited for the job he is. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/70 "2018-01-08T18:06:40Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The discussion isn’t about if he’d be any good. It’s about if he’d be better than Trump. I agree. It’s possible to believe that Carson would be the worst President in our history and would be a better President than Trump. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/71 "2018-01-08T18:10:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I agree. It’s possible to believe that Carson would be the worst President in our history and would be a better President than Trump. Wouldn’t that make him the second worst? The presidency isn’t like the NCAA. We’re not just going to vacate Trump’s win. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/72 "2018-01-08T19:55:49Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Wouldn’t that make him the second worst? The presidency isn’t like the NCAA. We’re not just going to vacate Trump’s win. No, the point of the OP was wishing Ben Carson won instead of Trump. So following that logic what **Little Nemo** posted was logically correct. This is a ‘what if’ and not a reality. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/73 "2018-01-08T19:57:52Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > All his political positions aside, Carson seems like is personally a kind man. > > Trump has spent a lifetime conning people. He’s not a successful businessman so much as he’s a successful con artist. His financial life has been a perpetual balancing act with leveraged assets, with the objective of enabling himself to live a lavish lifestyle and get as much attention as possible. > > Carson has spent a lifetime as a neurosurgeon. > > I know damn well which of these men I’d rather have in charge of the country, if I HAD to choose between one or the other. Oh, I’d definitely prefer Carson over the current “pussy-grabber-in-chief”. No ringing endorsement there, because I would prefer someone else entirely, but Carson at least seems to be a somewhat decent fellow. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/74 "2018-01-08T20:06:01Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > …but Carson at least seems to be a somewhat decent fellow. [Does he, really?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hud-secretary-ben-carson-has-a-compassion-problem/2017/09/11/b00dfe18-9656-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html?utm_term=.6f635f7cc2a2) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/75 "2018-01-08T20:09:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > [Does he, really?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hud-secretary-ben-carson-has-a-compassion-problem/2017/09/11/b00dfe18-9656-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html?utm_term=.6f635f7cc2a2) > > Stranger Aw, crud… ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/76 "2018-01-20T15:06:40Z")
Carson is a nice man. Totally clueless and ignorant about the things needed to be President, but much better than the self-described great man currently occupying the seat. Between the two, it is no contest. His problem is that he would face a revolt of R Conservatives inside of a week and would have no idea how to respond. I feel sorry that he took the HUD job. Talk about accepting a subservient role! The only African-American minority in the cabinet and in the HUD job at that. It must be embarrassing coming to work every day. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/77 "2018-01-20T15:19:22Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Carson is a nice man. Totally clueless and ignorant about the things needed to be President, but much better than the self-described great man currently occupying the seat. Between the two, it is no contest. > His problem is that he would face a revolt of R Conservatives inside of a week and would have no idea how to respond. > > I feel sorry that he took the HUD job. Talk about accepting a subservient role! The only African-American minority in the cabinet and in the HUD job at that. It must be embarrassing coming to work every day. Really? Embarrassing? Wasn’t his previous highest office “none at all”? I don’t understand why he would be embarrassed by a minor cabinet post, I can see why he would be embarrassed to be part of the Trump cabinet though. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/78 "2018-01-20T16:07:14Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Carson is a nice man. [Is he, though?](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/us/politics/ben-carson-hud-poverty-plans.html) > [@rbroome](#): > > I feel sorry that he took the HUD job. Talk about accepting a subservient role! The only African-American minority in the cabinet and in the HUD job at that. It must be embarrassing coming to work every day. If Ben Carson had any awareness of how he is percieved, his position as a secretary of a ‘minor’ Cabinet depatment would be just about [the least embarrassing aspect of it.](http://theweek.com/articles/578765/how-ben-carson-both-incredibly-smart-spectacularly-stupid) Ben Carson is an anti-science, anti-history, apocalyptic conspiracy nutter, and unlike Trump he doesn’t have the excuse of being a pampered and undereducated son of a wealthy real estate tycoon. Carson is a self-made moron who had to go out and get ignorant all on his own despite his education and training in medical science, and has chosen to put his faith in wacky ideas that even make Christian fundies say, “Dude, how the fuck can you buy into that shit?” And if you believe Trump is being strung along by conservatives and/or Russian influence, that is nothing compared to the sway unscrupulous people could have over Carson, who is apparently built to believe more contradictory and baseless ideas than the latest Electronic Monk models with the new Hyperparallel Factoid Acquisition Co-Processer and Adaptive Disbelief Suspension Technology. Look for the “Imbecile Inside!” label and accept no substitutes! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/79 "2018-01-20T18:28:10Z")
Are you sure he really holds those beliefs or is it just for show as being politically necessary? He is a literal brain surgeon after all. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867/80 "2018-01-20T19:14:43Z")
Ben Carson doesn’t just profess beilef in the ‘ordinary’ Far Right spectrum of philosophy. He doesn’t even just share the somewhat off-nominal beliefs of his Seventh Day Adventist brethren who describe themselves as [”God’s ‘peculiar people’”](http://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story2876-what-u.s.-same-sex-ruling-means-for-adventists). No, Ben Carson consistantly professes belief in the kind of high weirdness that Robert Anton Wilson would have difficulty saying with a straight face, including [that the Egyptian pyramids were built by the Joseph of Canaan to store grain](https://www.gq.com/story/ben-carson-believes-in-a-lot-of-stuff), [evolution is a Satanic plot and that the Big Bang hypothesis is a “fairy tale”](https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ben-carsons-scientific-ignorance), and [”poverty is a state of mind”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/24/ben-carson-calls-poverty-a-state-of-mind-during-interview/). People do keep repeating, “but he’s a brain surgeon” as if his technical expertise in that area demonstrates mental competency and temperment to hold the office of the President, but pretty much everything else that has come out of his mouth since announcing his candidacy has demonstrated the precise opposite. I wouldn’t be comfortable giving Ben Carson a Red Ryder BB gun, much less the nuclear launch codes. But on the plus side, [he does know where is luggage is now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFyWqAaWSyE&t=36s%5B/URL). So…there is that. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-have-ben-carson-as-president-right-now/805867.md?page=5)