fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Carson and Identity Politics

Most of Carson's fans aren't going to see him as a liability to be cast aside.
ben carson book signing

Michael Brendan Dougherty makes a good case that Carson’s candidacy is bad for the evangelicals that make up a large part of his support:

Carson is diverting monetary, emotional, and organizational resources away from the real long-term work of evangelical politics. He has no ideas to offer his party, which is in need of them. He has no political leadership skills for a culture that is desperate for them. He is pulling evangelical influence and resources away from candidates who can win, which ultimately enhances the grip of the more secular, more liberal Republican establishment. This is political malpractice.

I find that persuasive, but I suspect that this is exactly the sort of argument that won’t persuade many Carson supporters to give up on him. For example, take the claim that Carson is “pulling evangelical influence and resources away from candidates who can win.” Maybe he is, but who are these other candidates supposed to be? Cruz? Huckabee? Besides, the response from a Carson supporter would be that Carson is more electable than the others.

Most of Carson’s fans aren’t going to see him as a liability to be cast aside, but will probably fault the likes to Cruz, Jindal, and Huckabee for staying in the race and splitting up the vote that might otherwise go to Carson. Carson supporters might reasonably point out that most of his competitors don’t have many ideas or leadership skills, either, so they might as well stick with the candidate they like. Finally, many evangelicals and social conservatives will have noticed that they are usually expected to accept a nominee who isn’t really “one of them,” and they will also have noticed that the party leadership ignores their concerns once the election is over, so they may conclude that they should just back the candidate that they think best represents them. Will that advance the cause they care about? Almost certainly not, but they already know that backing a more conventional candidate also doesn’t “work” in that way.

Dougherty is making sense when he says that evangelical “political victories will happen and become sustainable when it doesn’t matter whether the Republicans nominate a co-religionist like Mike Huckabee or a non-practicing Jack Mormon like Jon Huntsman,” but he knows that people voting on identity or “shared values” aren’t thinking in these terms. They’re voting to have someone like them in a leadership position because it does matter to them what kind of person fills that position.

Advertisement

Comments

Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here