By David French
Friday, November 06, 2015
Let’s begin with two propositions: There is a difference
between an admirable man and a perfect man, and there is a difference between
“vetting” and viciousness. The collective goal of the liberal media is now
clear — to take one of America’s most admired and brilliant men and somehow transform
him into a dishonest, stupid extremist. The vetting of Ben Carson has become
vicious, and to what end? An admirable man has been exposed as imperfect.
The first round of attacks, focusing on Carson’s alleged
extremism, failed utterly. Under fire — for claiming that it would be better if
victims rushed mass shooters rather than hiding, for asserting that Hitler
would have been less likely to accomplish his aims if the German people had
been armed, and for comparing the debate over abortion to the debate over
slavery — Carson refused to back down. A conservative public, wearily familiar
with politicians kowtowing to media-generated outrage, took notice.
Rather than deal directly with Carson’s statements, the
media twisted his words, scurrilously asserting that he was “blaming the
victims” of school shootings and claiming that German Jews alone could have
stopped the Holocaust (when he’d plainly referred to the “German people,” not
just German Jews). As for the abortion–slavery comparison, even Vox noted that conservatives have been
making that argument for decades. The comparison is controversial, certainly,
but hardly “extreme.”
While the media no doubt still believe Carson to be
extreme, they quickly learned that their attacks only increased his popularity
with a PC-averse conservative public. In the midst of these fake
“controversies,” he shot to the top of Republican polls, where he now
(slightly) edges out Donald Trump in the RealClearPolitics
average.
If he’s not extreme, is he stupid? Left-wing websites
have great fun mocking Carson’s skepticism of the theory of evolution, his idle
speculations regarding the purpose of the pyramids, and his thoughts on climate
change and the debt limit. Yet this line of attack is fruitless. Carson may not
be as fluent in public policy as the professional politicians who’ve been
debating these issues for years, but his résumé is decisive evidence of his
intelligence.
If he’s not extreme or stupid, is he dishonest? Is it
possible that a man known for his rags-to-riches life story, his generosity,
his humility, and his deep and lasting concern for the poor has a character
problem? After all, in Carson’s famous autobiography, Gifted Hands, he said that he’d been offered a “full scholarship”
to West Point. Politico says that
Carson now admits that story was “fabricated.” Their proof? He never applied to
West Point. But Carson didn’t say that he applied, only that he’d been offered
a “full scholarship.” How can he “fabricate” a claim he never made?
Carson’s campaign manager says that Carson was introduced
to “folks from West Point by his ROTC supervisors. . . . They told him they
could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC.”
What, exactly, is the story here? If it’s simply that he should have described
military officials’ expressions of enthusiasm with more precision, then this is
truly a tempest in a teapot.
His account, in fact, resonates with my own experience.
Many years ago I was “offered” an ROTC scholarship before I even applied. After
speaking with officers familiar with my academic record, they told me I would
receive a full academic scholarship, and that the application was a mere
formality. My teenage self certainly took their statements as an “offer,” and I
wouldn’t have applied without their word. (I filled out the forms and was
formally accepted, but declined in favor of a better scholarship elsewhere.)
At the same time, CNN’s effort to call into question
Carson’s story about his childhood anger issues is both weak and malicious. The
network interviewed ten people from his neighborhood about 50-year-old
incidents that Carson claims they never witnessed, and now peddle a story
raising doubts about claims in Carson’s biography. What? Is it now the case
that CNN can interview ten people about decades-old life events that didn’t happen to them and now
breathlessly proclaim a “scoop.”
Hovering over the feeding frenzy is the absurd media
spectacle of mainstream reporters claiming they’re merely “doing their job” by
diving into 50-year-old details of Ben Carson’s childhood. The same reporters
who were not just incurious about the details of Barack Obama’s background in
2008 but actively hostile to those who asked reasonable questions about his
relationship with admitted domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and his years of
religious instruction from Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright.
At the end of the day, what are we left with? An
admirable though imperfect man who rose from abject poverty to the pinnacle of
one of the most challenging professions in the nation — all while never
forgetting his roots, maintaining grace and humility even as he earned riches
and honors. In fact, his life story — and his character — would make him one of
the most inspiring Americans ever to occupy the Oval Office. But he’s a direct
threat not just to leftist narratives regarding race and class but also to the
leftist stranglehold on the black vote. And for that reason alone he must be
destroyed.
A “high-tech lynching” is again underway, but if recent
history is any guide, the Left’s attempt to strike down Carson will only make
him stronger. The media can launch its attacks, but it cannot change the
fundamental facts: Ben Carson is a good and decent man, an American hero.
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