Ben Carson: The Brain Surgeon that is no brain surgeon...

I almost feel bad for writing this one. Ben Carson seems like a really nice guy. I think he's genuine and actually believes the things he says, but enough is enough. This brilliant surgeon is simply stupid about too many issue to be taken seriously.

For one, Carson is capitalizing on Populism with a vengeance. Of course, all the candidates are, but Carson does it so completely his only rivals in populism are Trump or Sanders. Things like gay marriage, abortion, hysterical predictions about the future, and religion plague most of his talking points and make one wonder: How did a man brilliant enough to separate conjoined twins' brains get this woefully out of touch and out of reason on basic issues?

Don't believe Carson is 'that bad'? Here are some examples:

He openly admitted that he thinks prison turns straight people gay.  He tried to walk the statement back by saying it didn't 'reflect his true heart' on the issue of gay rights, but the damage was done and it is clear he believes that being gay is a choice. This is a position that can only be held by people who do not closely associate with gay persons.

His apology is even less heartfelt when he openly admits that he believes any justice that voted for Marriage Equality should be removed from the Court. Keeping in mind that the logic used to stop states from violating the rights of equal protection under the law (14th Amendment) are the very principles that ended segregation and directly led to the moment where Ben Carson could even run for President, an Executive (the office for which he is running) cannot decide who should and should not serve in the SCOTUS based on how much they like their rulings, nor can the Legislative Branch. The SCOTUS makes terrible mistakes sometimes (see: Kelo v New London), but those mistakes cannot be solved by letting biased and partisan players throw them out of office. Better understanding of the Constitution on the part of the population would be the real antidote to this issues.

Carson also seems to be a doomsday believer. As bad as things are, we are not on the brink of apocalypse, but to hear Carson speak, we are days away from martial law. Even though he talks about how the government is taking over more and more rights (he's right there) he also thinks we are on the bring of anarchy. The two ideas are antithetical, but he doesn't stop there. He believes that once we reach this anarchy (before 2016 btw), Barack Obama will institute Martial Law and place himself as leader for the foreseeable future. Now, I have no doubts that Obama would love such a proposal, but anyone who believes this is even a remotely likely scenario needs to take off his tin-foil hat and have a time out.

Most recently he's defended his controversial statement that people should rush active shooters 'heroically' stopping them. Forgetting that this is insulting to the people who lost their lives while following their natural 'flight' instinct, this is also stupid. First of all, Carson has never been in the situation where he had to make this choice, so it's silly for him to say what he would do let alone what everyone else would do. Secondly, while I commend those who do have the fight instinct and have been heroes, saving people's lives, it is negligent to tell untrained people what they ought to do in an active shooter situation. This is especially true when terrified people act differently under pressure. There is no need to pretend that how you act when a gun is aimed at your head is the way one indicates if you are a hero or not.

These are not the only stupid things Ben Carson has said. There are but a few examples of how a brilliant person can be ignorant on a host of issues. Ben Carson would be a populist President, guided by his emotions, personal biases, and religious belief. That is a terrible way to run a free, secular, Republic.