In Praise of Democrats

No doubt many readers will be put off by the unexpected title of this essay, so I'll hasten to add a crucial disclaimer: This article will not extol the godless, radically secularist ideology of the current Democratic Party leadership or its abominable methods of putting it into practice. Nor will it condemn the traditional Judeo-Christian values, strict constitutional government, and fiscal responsibility espoused by the current Republican Party leadership. Rather, my intention here is along the lines of Jesus' famous remark to his disciples that the children of this age are wiser in their generation than the children of light. My goal is to demonstrate that there is something truly praiseworthy in our worst political enemies, the Democrats, and that there is something truly blameworthy in our best political friends, the Republicans.

Looking back over the past ten years of contemporary American history, which includes eight years of President Obama and two years of President Trump, it becomes painfully obvious that the Democrats have been steadily gaining the upper hand in national and state politics. This increasing concentration of power in Democratic hands has been taking place despite the remarkable growth and ascendancy of the Tea Party movement which swept historic Republican majorities into the Senate, the House of Representatives, and state legislatures and state governorships across the nation in 2010 and 2014 and propelled Donald Trump into the White House in 2016. Ironically, Democrats are even more powerful and dangerous now in 2019, with majority control of the House alone, than they were in 2009 when they controlled the White House, the House and the Senate with a filibuster-proof supermajority in the latter chamber. How so?

In today's money-driven, politically polarized, social media-saturated culture, a political movement easily claims victory over its opposition based on the sums of money it raises and spends on advertising, the amount of media publicity it gets, and the number of seats and chambers it wins and holds in Washington and state capitals. Although these factors are to some extent important and necessary for any political movement to achieve national prominence, their sum does not automatically equal enduring influence. The true yardstick for measuring the long-term success of any U.S. political movement is its ability to accomplish its stated objectives. And the absolutely critical factor here is the movement's determination (or lack thereof) to implement its agenda.

During the past ten years, the Democrats have made it very clear that their agenda is to fundamentally transform America from a Judeo-Christian, Constitutional, pro-life, pro-family, small-government, low-tax, balanced-budget, market-economy-based, secure-borders nation into a godless, lawless, pro-abortion, anti-family, big-government, high-tax, high-debt, socialist, open-borders nation. Their toolkit to accomplish this has included lies, propaganda, secrecy, name-calling, character assassination, threats, and blackmail. Frankly, they've made substantial progress toward their revolutionary goal with the continued expulsion of God from our national life and public places, a litany of unconstitutional laws and executive orders from ObamaCare to DACA, maintaining taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Supreme Court decisions upholding ObamaCare and striking down state marriage laws, swelling of the federal bureaucracy, high taxes, a national debt increase of $12 trillion, stifled economic growth, and a massive population of illegal immigrants.

The fact that most of this was accomplished with Republicans controlling one or both houses of Congress is a shining reflection on the bulldog tenacity of Democrats to see their agenda through, come what may. It's also a glaring reflection on the disappointing lack of determination by Republicans to implement their own agenda for the country. Supposedly, the Republicans want to keep America a Judeo-Christian, Constitutional, pro-life, pro-family, small-government, low-tax, fiscally responsible, market-economy-based, secure-borders nation. And it's true that in the past two years, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have taken some important steps to implement their agenda, reversing some of the damage wreaked by Democrats under President Obama. However, the Republicans have not been anywhere near as aggressive in implementing their good agenda as the Democrats have been in implementing their evil one. Worse, Democrats consistently make agenda-driven campaign promises and deliver on them, while Republicans tend to make agenda-driven campaign promises and renege on them.

Case in point: the ObamaCare monstrosity. Democrats promised it during the 2008 election campaign, and after winning that election, despite opposition from Republicans and two-thirds of the American people, they delivered, ramming the controversial bill through Congress and into law in 2010. Republicans promised to either repeal or de-fund it during the 2014 election season, but after winning that election, despite massive support for fulfilling their campaign promise, in 2015 Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner caved in to President Obama's demand for money for his pet law. Again in 2016, Donald Trump and the Republicans solemnly pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act [sic] and replace it with entirely new healthcare legislation in line with their own agenda. But while a Democratic-controlled White House, Senate and House in 2009 and 2010 proved entirely capable of enacting ObamaCare, a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House in 2017 and 2018 proved entirely incapable of repealing it.

The fact that ObamaCare is still on the books today certainly demonstrates the staying power of the corrupt Washington establishment behind it (with which the Democrats are fully in bed), but more to the point here, it exemplifies the ominous trend of the past ten years in which Republicans are quickly throwing their campaign promises out the window, quietly setting their agenda aside, and gradually ceding more power to their Democratic enemies. The donkey's iron determination combined with the elephant's hushed timidity effectively renders the Democratic Party the majority party in America today. If this trend continues, within twenty years the Republican Party will find itself an irrelevant minority party, leaving the Democrats firmly in charge of national affairs.

Why have Republican politicians abandoned their core principles, betrayed their loyal constituents, and compromised their cherished values in this fashion? Apparently, for fear of the Democrats who are threatening them and have added the incitement of mob violence to their toolkit in their increasing desperation to further advance their radically secularist agenda. And apparently, Republicans are so scared of the above-mentioned establishment that they've been transformed into creatures of that very establishment, while still claiming to represent "we the people." They are now followers disguised as leaders. The Republicans' hypocrisy is sickening and their cowardice is frightening. I have to hand it to the Democrats: they know exactly what they want to achieve and how to achieve it, and come heck or high water, they're accomplishing it. Meanwhile, much of the wholesome agenda our country sorely needs languishes in the comfortable offices of House and Senate Republicans.

Yes, the Democratic bullies have lots of money and power thanks to the corrupt establishment and the "mainstream" media. But that's a poor excuse for Republicans to roll over and play dead. The Republican principles that made America great are worth defending as strenuously as possible, and since the Republican agenda based on those principles holds the key to America's long-term survival, it must be pushed with even more determination than the Democrats are pushing their rotten agenda if it is to succeed long-term. This means the Republicans must be "wise as serpents and simple as doves," taking full advantage of their own strengths and fully exploiting the Democrats' weaknesses. The Democrats may seem stronger at the moment in worldly terms, but Republicans have the far greater strengths of faith and trust in God, the revealed truths of natural law regarding human life and liberty, the wisdom and example of the Founders, prayer and fasting, and divine grace. If Republicans utilize their own strengths with sufficient determination and resolve for a sufficient period of time, America will be rescued from the tyranny of radical secularism. If not...


Copyright © 2019 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

The Political Rise and Fall of Dr. Ben Carson

by Justin Soutar

(This article was originally published on the website Intellectual Conservative May 11, 2016 at http://intellectualconservative.com/the-political-rise-and-fall-of-dr-ben-carson/ )

More than two months ago in early March, following a slew of major defeats in the GOP primary elections, award-winning neurosurgeon, popular speaker, bestselling author and Tea Party candidate Dr. Benjamin S. Carson officially announced that he had decided to withdraw from the presidential race. For those millions of us citizens across America who had been his loyal and dedicated supporters for the previous several months and years, the sudden demise and fizzling out of Dr. Carson's remarkable presidential campaign came as a jarring and profoundly disappointing anticlimax. Carson's stunningly dramatic rise from relative obscurity to a leading presidential candidate in less than a year's time appeared to bode well for his chances of winning a substantial number of state primary elections--and thus a sufficient number of delegates to the upcoming Republican National Convention--to secure his adopted party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016.

Unfortunately, however, Dr. Carson's performance in the early Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada primary election contests in February, as well as in the Super Tuesday primaries of March 1, failed to meet the expectations of his hardworking organizers and supporters, who had reasonably expected him to carry at least a handful of these critical early voting states. Instead, closely reflecting national polling data at the time, Ben Carson came in consistently third or fourth in each state's election returns behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. In the wake of Super Tuesday, with more than one fourth of the states having already voted, Carson had amassed a total of only about 60 delegates--not even one-twentieth of the total necessary to clinch the GOP nomination. Since the math and polling trends now rendered electoral victory extremely unlikely if not impossible, Carson's campaign team realized that it would be futile for him to continue to stay in the race. Calmly facing the unpleasant reality of defeat with his characteristic humility and wisdom, Carson acted prudently in bowing out of the primary election contest when he did.

Within two and a half years' time, Dr. Ben Carson's political star had climbed with extraordinary steadiness from the horizon to the zenith, where it shone with dazzling brilliance, and then suddenly it plunged toward the opposite horizon, disappearing from view entirely in a matter of weeks. What happened here? How did the previously little-known Dr. Carson so quickly achieve the status of a major presidential candidate, only to find himself leaving the race just as things were heating up?

Paradoxically, Dr. Carson had laid firm groundwork for his presidential run by building a solid reputation outside the political realm in the fields of medicine, education, business, and culture. He is probably best known for his trailblazing twenty-nine year career as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, during which he performed more than 36,000 surgeries with an extremely low patient mortality rate, including the first-ever successful separation of twin boys joined at the back of the head. For his veritable encyclopedia of stunning achievements as a neurosurgeon, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. For a number of years, through the Carson Scholars Fund, Ben and his wife had been working to reform and improve America’s education system by setting up reading rooms in inner-city elementary schools across the country to encourage more kids to read books, stimulating better academic performance through a merit-based reward system, and offering scholarships to promising students from low-income families.

In addition to the significant business experience he accumulated as head of the multi-million-dollar pediatric neurosurgery division at Johns Hopkins for three decades, Dr. Carson had served on the corporate boards of a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Costco and Kellogg’s. Finally, Carson’s fascinating rise from a single-parent childhood of poverty in inner-city Detroit to a world-class neurosurgeon had won the respect and admiration of many Americans of different races and backgrounds who had read his popular autobiography Gifted Hands (1990) or seen the TV documentary of the same title (2009). More recently, Ben Carson’s influence on American culture was further strengthened by several other widely read books, including the number one New York Times bestsellers America the Beautiful (2012) and One Nation (2014); the latter sold an astonishing forty-two million copies in the ten weeks following its release, outselling Hillary Clinton’s simultaneously released autobiography Hard Choices three to one.

What initially catapulted Ben Carson into the political limelight was his brilliant, thoughtful, frank, courageous, and respectful off-the-cuff address at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast attended by President Obama and Vice President Biden—a monumental discourse which deserves a place in the annals of conservative oratory alongside Barry Goldwater’s 1964 speech at the Republican National Convention and Ronald Reagan’s famous “Evil Empire” address of 1983. In this eloquent and well-balanced critique of contemporary America, delivered while he was still practicing neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Carson put ObamaCare, our nation's tax system, our national debt, and our moral decline into perspective and suggested some biblically-based, common-sense solutions to these problems. To those who heard him speak that February morning, it was obvious that Dr. Carson was endowed with a rare ability to discuss complex issues in simple terms that any layperson could easily understand. It was this highly accessible speech that introduced him to the nation as a great communicator with a solid grasp of America’s founding principles and ignited a national movement to draft Ben Carson into the 2016 presidential race.

From that time onward, as a popular speaker and author of multiple bestselling books, Dr. Carson became increasingly well-known within both the African–American community and the wider American cultural arena for his insightful and articulate reflections on what made our country great; for the simple stories he often used from his own experience to illustrate a point; for his intelligent and original opinions on how to resolve our national problems; and for his optimistic vision of America's future based on a return to our nation's founding principles. And his character traits of self-reliance, hard work, honesty and integrity, humility, courtesy, and compassion, combined with his devout Christian faith, traditional moral values, and record of exemplary achievement, made him a principled leader and a shining example of the American dream whose mass appeal transcended racial and political boundaries. In short, millions of Americans already knew, liked, and trusted Ben Carson for months and years before he ever became a presidential candidate.

The ironic thing is that, despite his authentic leadership credentials, Dr. Carson had never desired or intended to run for President of the United States. When the suggestion was first made to him immediately following the 2013 speech, he laughed it off as ridiculous. After all, he was a sixty-plus-year-old pediatric neurosurgeon on the verge of retirement and a registered Independent with no prior experience in politics. But his address at the National Prayer Breakfast had unwittingly prompted the establishment of a super PAC called the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee under the leadership of conservative political activist John Philip Sousa IV—and once that ball got started rolling, it continued to steadily gain momentum. During the next two years, at the instigation of this committee, upwards of 500,000 Americans insistently clamored for Ben Carson to run for president on the Republican ticket, claiming that his leadership in the White House was desperately needed to straighten our country out. Finally, in May of 2015, the reticent Dr. Carson acquiesced to the will of the people and threw his hat into the presidential ring, entering an already crowded field of contenders for the GOP nomination.

At that time, national polls registered Ben Carson as the presidential choice of about 5 percent of Americans, so it wasn't surprising that the mainstream media initially paid him little attention. He was a classic longshot candidate for the White House, and most observers never seriously expected him to surge out of the bottom category into the top tier of likely presidential candidates. They were in for a surprise. Carson's entry into the race further elevated his public profile, stimulating his modest and already growing support base to expand at an accelerated tempo. Slowly but unmistakably, Ben Carson's national poll numbers started to climb out of the doldrums, leaving single digits behind within a few weeks. (During this time, he also made quite a splash as the surprise winner of the first televised Republican debate.) By the end of June, Dr. Carson had risen to 18 percent, making him the second most popular Republican candidate, and he continued to surge throughout the summer, steadily gaining on Donald Trump. In August, he was tied with Trump for the number one spot, and by early October, Carson had actually overtaken Trump to become the leading Republican presidential candidate in national polls--and despite the predictions of naysayers, he managed to hold that enviable position for the next two months straight.

If Ben Carson's five-month ascendancy from near-oblivion to the pinnacle of the GOP field and his two-month dominance of that field represented astonishing achievements and newsworthy events from the perspective of any reasonable observer, the reaction of the radically secularist mainstream media pundits on both sides of the political aisle was even more astonishing. With conspiratorial uniformity, they ignored Dr. Carson almost entirely. Despite their earlier casual dismissals and negative predictions, here he was leading in national polls, sharing the center of every debate stage with Mr. Trump, yet there was no serious discussion of why this was happening, no thoughtful commentary on this remarkable and unexpected development, no extensive interviews with Ben Carson on the major networks. Instead, we were saddled with a nearly total mainstream media blackout of Dr. Carson, while the lion's share of big media attention remained obsessively devoted to Trump, Bush and Christie. This incomprehensibly hypocritical and blatantly unfair treatment of Ben Carson on the part of America's media elite represented a prime example of biased and irresponsible journalism. Journalists bear a responsibility to the general public to convey and reflect upon the truth of what's actually going on, but in this case the Beltway journalists were obviously at pains to conceal the truth because it didn't mesh with their radically secularist agenda for our nation.

The corrupt mainstream media elite and the corrupt Washington political establishment--which, for convenience, may be treated as a single entity, since the same mega-corporate interests essentially run both entities and they share the same radically secularist agenda--couldn't tolerate the mere idea of an honest and principled citizen statesman like Ben Carson getting into the White House. If that were to happen, the deeply entrenched political corruption that buttresses and sustains their jealously guarded power and influence would be pulled like a rug from beneath their feet and the power of the federal government would revert from these usurpers back to its rightful owners, i.e., we the people. So these cunning and worldly-wise media moguls had to figure out some way to derail Ben Carson's astoundingly successful grassroots presidential campaign in order to prevent him from winning the Republican nomination. They knew they wouldn't be able to smear his reputation with any dirt from his past because there isn't any dirt in his past to dig up. They had attempted to spread some lies about him, but that didn't work very well because most people already knew the truth about him, and those who didn't discovered it soon enough. They tried to find some juicy errors or omissions in Carson's income tax returns--a huge potential "gotcha"--but that search came up empty. And they knew that his political campaign (unlike their good pal Hillary Clinton's) was being run entirely in accordance with federal election law, so they couldn't shut him down legally or call that into question.

Consequently, the mainstream media executives settled on a strategy of deliberately ignoring Ben Carson and relentlessly focusing their primary attention on their own favorite GOP candidates, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie. This approach extended to the Republican debates, where despite his high poll rankings and central position on the stage, Dr. Carson was generally given far less time to speak than the mainstream media darlings. As the months passed, this strategy of marginalization proved effective. Not seeing or hearing much of their candidate on TV, millions of less fanatical Carson supporters gradually became discouraged and drifted into the more visible and noisier Trump, Cruz, and Rubio camps. By the end of 2015, Carson had slipped to second place in national polls; he was at third place this past January, and had sunk to fourth place by the time actual voting began in early February.

Yet even with this perceptible decline in nationwide support precipitated by the big media boycott, Carson might still have won the Iowa caucus on February 1 had a despicable last-minute dirty trick not been pulled off by a rival and less principled GOP campaign team. Just hours before voting began, a false rumor that Carson had dropped out of the race was deliberately circulated by the Ted Cruz presidential campaign, deceiving who knows how many thousands of Carson supporters into casting their ballots for Cruz instead. Spreading this lie about Carson enabled Cruz to steal victory in the Iowa primary election. Although he would not withdraw from the race for another month, it's apparent in retrospect that the Ben Carson presidential campaign was essentially finished at that point. Dr. Carson already had enough of a challenge trying to win state primary elections with official campaign and super PAC funding limited to grassroots donations and the heavy media bias against him, but when a dishonest tactic by a fellow candidate on opening day was thrown into the mix, the stage was unfortunately set for his presidential campaign to flounder beyond reasonable hope of recovery. 

Although history indicated that Carson didn't necessarily have to win Iowa to win the Republican nomination this summer, and so technically his chances were still pretty good, it was critical that he score victories in at least some of the other early voting states to give him a realistic shot at winning his adopted party's nomination. But with the deck stacked against him, he lost one state after another, and his chances of making it to the GOP convention as a presidential finalist correspondingly dwindled. Regrettably, Dr. Carson's campaign never recovered from the major damage it sustained in Iowa.  

So in essence, Ben Carson rose to political prominence on the strength of his credentials as a principled citizen statesman, but he failed to clinch the Republican nomination because the corrupt mainstream media and D.C. political establishment conspired to do him in. Shame on them. However, there is more to the story than that. While many of us ordinary Americans do profess traditional religious and moral values, we have nonetheless almost unconsciously allowed the propaganda being constantly cranked out by the radically secularist mainstream media machine to influence our thinking and shape our political loyalties. As a result of this, we have gradually abandoned a humble, honest, great, wise, selfless, moral, principled, civil, commonsense citizen statesman candidate--Ben Carson, a true populist--in favor of an arrogant, dishonest, petty, foolish, self-seeking, immoral, unscrupulous, rude, and ridiculous establishment politician--Donald Trump, a fake populist. Shame on us. Apparently, we’ve allowed ourselves to become so intoxicated by the mainstream media propaganda that we are unable to clearly distinguish between a counterfeit and the real deal. Unlike Carson, who truly represented "we the people," Trump is a charlatan who merely pretends to represent us, while in reality he represents himself and his bank accounts and the Washington political establishment he craves to join. Unlike Carson, Trump is a shameless braggart and a rabble-rousing demagogue who cannot be safely trusted to govern this nation in accordance with the principles of the Founders. Yet this clanging cymbal is seemingly trusted by more than two-fifths of the American populace.

If, at the end of the day, we the people are really on the side of the corrupt media and political establishment, what does that say about us? It says, for one thing, that we are a gullible bunch, easily bamboozled into believing exactly what the establishment wants us to believe. This lack of discernment and critical thinking would have horrified the Founders, who regarded an intelligent and well-educated citizenry as indispensable to the continued health and wellbeing of the American republic. While Carson intuitively held, as he put it in one of the debates last autumn, that "the American people are not stupid" (his emphasis), he was clearly overestimating our intelligence. Yes, we are stupid. Just as a certain crowd, at the instigation of certain religious leaders, preferred the release of a convicted murderer over the innocent Son of God himself, so we, under the influence of our own media and political elite, would rather elect an assertive, blustering, corrupt, and ambitious worldly real estate mogul as President of the United States than a meek, quiet-spoken, ethical, and trustworthy Christian doctor, philanthropist, speaker and writer. We prefer Trump to Carson. We prefer vice to virtue. And because of that, we’ve cavalierly passed up our first real chance to nominate and elect a truly great president since the days of Ronald Reagan, leaving America vulnerable to the capricious whims of a corrupt, immoral, and tyrannical Trump or Clinton presidency and ensuring continued national decline for at least another four years.

During the past two months, I've been asking myself why God permitted Ben Carson to achieve such remarkable early success as a presidential candidate if he knew that his campaign was ultimately doomed to failure. I had sincerely believed that God was raising up Dr. Carson to be our next president, and I was also convinced--as I still am--that he was the only presidential candidate who would have healed and united our broken and wounded nation and restored America to greatness. Apparently, for some strange combination of reasons, God willed that Ben Carson emerge for a brief span of time as a prominent national figure in the political arena, but did not will him to be our next president. Perhaps one of those reasons is that God wanted to expose the interior nastiness and rottenness of our radically secularist mainstream media and political establishment and to show us how easily we good folks are awed, taken in, and deceived by the gleaming exterior of that omnipresent establishment. On the positive side, I would also suggest that God willed to clearly show us, through the beautiful witness of Dr. Carson's words and actions, the path we must tread as a nation if we wish to reclaim our former greatness in the years to come. There may be other reasons as well. At any rate, I continue to trust that God, in his infinite wisdom and providence, has a plan for this beleaguered country of ours, and that Carson's tragic political demise—which guarantees a continued absence of principled leadership in the White House, at least in the near term—is somehow a part of that mysterious plan.

With his amazing roller-coaster ten-month sojourn in presidential politics now behind him, the inimitable soft-spoken conservative genius Dr. Ben Carson is back where he prefers to be, living the quieter life of a private citizen, albeit a much better known one now. He may have lost his one and only bid for the presidency, but unlike his fellow contenders for that high office, at least he had his priorities straight: he would rather lose an election than lose his soul. He will undoubtedly spend his remaining years on this earth continuing to serve his beloved country in any way he can. He will remain and be remembered as a great American physician and speaker and writer and philanthropist, a tireless defender of Constitutional government and a fervent champion of liberty and justice for all, respected for his character and values and renowned for his abilities and accomplishments.

Although he never wanted to run for President of the United States, Dr. Carson did it on behalf of “we the people”, out of genuine love for us and genuine concern for our country, offering a noble and splendid example of both Christian servant leadership and authentic patriotism. For months on end during the height of his popularity, he calmly yet firmly stood his ground and steadfastly weathered the storm of unjustified political and media hostility and prejudice and indifference that beat mercilessly upon him, without becoming bitter or retaliating against his enemies. For that example of selfless service and that tranquil steadfastness in the face of adversity, he deserves our sincere admiration and our humble gratitude.

Unlike any of the other leading presidential candidates, Ben Carson was a true Christian gentleman and a true patriot, and his absence leaves our current political arena acutely impoverished. At a time of constantly deepening national crisis, Dr. Carson's definitive departure from the 2016 presidential contest exposes a yawning leadership vacuum within the American political system that no lesser candidate can possibly fill.

 
Copyright © 2016 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.                               

Why Is EWTN Boycotting Ben Carson?

by Justin Soutar

(NOTE: This article was originally published by Catholic Online Dec. 28, 2015 at http://www.catholic.org/news/politics/story.php?id=66141 )

Like tens of millions of Catholics and others throughout the United States and hundreds of millions of people around the world, I am immensely grateful to God for the priceless gift of the Eternal Word Television Network. From the day of its founding by a Poor Clare nun named Mother Mary Angelica in a Birmingham, Alabama garage some thirty-five years ago, this great tool of catechesis, inspiration, and evangelization has been faithfully proclaiming the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church both “in season and out of season,” strengthening and assisting those of us who are “inside the fold” while attractively presenting the beauty of our faith to those outside the Church, leading to many conversions to Catholicism. As someone who has been watching EWTN since 1993, I have been delighted to observe the steady growth of this Catholic cable and satellite network in national and global reach, professionalism, and the quality and variety of programming offered. Since its initial foray into shortwave and AM/FM radio back in the nineties, the advent of twenty-first century media technology has further extended the network’s reach to the Internet, satellite radio, mobile devices, and social media. Along the way, EWTN has acquired a new studio along with its own publishing house which offers our nation’s leading Catholic newspaper, the National Catholic Register, in both print and digital format together with an array of high-quality Catholic books. All of these providential developments have transformed the network from a small amateur TV station of humble origin into the world’s foremost Catholic media apostolate, which is now reaching well over one billion people across the globe.

Thanks to the ongoing prayers and sacrifices of Mother Angelica and her Poor Clare nuns as well as to the spiritual and financial support of its ever broader base of viewers, EWTN has continued to remain remarkably faithful to its mission, in general doing a fantastic job of nourishing and spreading the Catholic faith. Because of that, I have rarely felt the need to question or criticize a policy decision of the network’s leadership during my twenty-two years of watching EWTN. At the present moment, however, I do feel that it is important to raise a question and offer a little dose of healthy criticism regarding one aspect of the network’s programming and publishing that has been bothering me for some time. We are commanded to speak the truth in love, so that is what I will attempt to do here.

My current bone to pick with EWTN has to do with the network’s news programming and publishing—and specifically with its overall coverage of the 2016 presidential election campaign—in light of its mission to faithfully proclaim the truth of the Gospel. I have no objection whatsoever to the network offering extensive and in-depth coverage of this election campaign from a faithful Catholic perspective, as it has been doing over the past year on TV and radio programs such as The World Over Live, EWTN News Nightly and Candidate Conversations, as well as through the National Catholic Register. My problem lies with the fact that this coverage has been noticeably slanted—that is to say, unfairly biased—in favor of certain Republican candidates and against others, under the influence of the godless, radically secularist, worldly, dishonest, immoral, corrupt, and money-driven mainstream media establishment whose values are diametrically opposed to those of the network itself.

As a civil nonprofit corporation run chiefly by lay Catholics, EWTN has long prided itself, and rightly so, on its independence from official Church institutions as well as from corporate entities of both a religious and secular nature, which has allowed it to strike its own path and pursue its mission without unwelcome interference. Unfortunately, when it comes to covering American politics and world news, in recent years the network has gradually but perceptibly drifted from its core mission to be an independent voice of truth, and it is now almost slavishly following the lead of the worldly mainstream media both in the stories it is choosing to break and discuss and in the presidential candidates on whom it is focusing. Whereas EWTN News was once accustomed to offering a fresh and balanced perspective on well-known current events and highlighting important stories neglected by the mainstream media, the network’s journalism division is now largely caught up in the Beltway news cycle, airing and discussing much the same headlines and focusing on the same presidential candidates as Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, Politico, and all the other D.C. establishment media outlets. This is quite a sea change from ten years ago, when Raymond Arroyo and other Catholic journalists at the network were known for their refreshingly independent and investigative approach, often digging up interesting stories off the beaten path, occasionally presenting a different angle on well-known stories, and not infrequently interviewing news makers who were being unfairly attacked by the mainstream media--or who might otherwise never appear on television, radio or in print.

A paradigm shift has clearly occurred within the journalism department at EWTN. Prior to this shift, the network was focused on the objective truth of what is happening in the world today, and its priorities were to seek out and discover that truth and share it with viewers as an independent source of faithful Catholic news and commentary. Now the focus is on what is happening in the world as seen through the dirty and short-sighted lenses of the worldly and highly subjective mainstream media, and the priority seems to be to highlight and discuss whatever the mainstream media is highlighting and discussing at the moment. While EWTN News was once prized for original Catholic news and analysis you couldn’t get anywhere else, now its programming is often almost a lock-step imitation of secular mainstream media news broadcasts—secular news with Catholic overtones, if you will. Although faithful Catholic perspectives are still routinely offered on current events, the global Catholic network’s overall news agenda is now largely dictated by the mainstream media. It’s like an orchestra whose members have remained the same, but they now have a different conductor and are playing different music.

This shift seems to have begun back in 2008 when the TV studio for the network’s flagship news magazine, The World Over Live, was permanently relocated from Birmingham to Washington, D.C. Whereas prior to this big move, the weekly news program was produced in a small, devoutly Catholic media enclave on the outskirts of a large city in central Alabama, now it comes to us from Capitol Hill, where the idols of money and power generally hold sway and where the alluring yet toxic influence of the mainstream media is difficult to resist. Over time, this significant change of environment has led, regrettably yet predictably, to a noticeable change in both the content and tone of the EWTN News programming. Without constant vigilance and the help of God’s wisdom and grace, how could any good Catholic journalist who lives and breathes this radically secular environment not find himself being gradually influenced by it as time passes? It will increasingly reshape his ways of thinking and acting, until eventually he is hardly distinguishable from his worldly peers.

Yes, it must be acknowledged that a certain degree of worldliness has crept into the journalism department at EWTN. This is clearly evident from just a cursory glance at its coverage of the 2016 presidential election cycle thus far, which—with the notable exception of Raymond Arroyo’s brief interview with Senator Rand Paul, a true statesman of character and principle—has generally mimicked the mainstream media coverage. This coverage has been unfairly skewed in favor of wealthy Republican candidates such as billionaire real estate magnate Donald Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, with insufficient attention given to the moral character, voting records, and issue positions of these candidates—the things that really matter to faithful Catholics looking to cast their vote responsibly in next year’s elections. Trump, a longtime Democrat and a good friend of Hillary Clinton, has donated money to Planned Parenthood, supports ObamaCare, and earned much of his fortune by forcing other companies into bankruptcy. That EWTN’s news director would unhesitatingly embrace him as a good candidate and give him so much positive attention on a faithful Catholic TV network this past summer was an example of irresponsible journalism that betrayed a serious lack of wisdom and discernment.

Meanwhile, just about every other leading and longshot Republican presidential candidate has been interviewed or discussed at some length on one or more EWTN news programs during this past year, indicating that some degree of fairness and balance does still prevail within that realm. However, there is one leading Republican candidate who, for no good reason, has been glaringly conspicuous by his near-total absence from the network’s news programming and publishing. Perhaps there is no better way to highlight the problem under discussion here than to pose the following simple question: Why is EWTN boycotting Ben Carson?

Now, it’s true that the term “boycott” usually refers to a consciously activist, deliberate and explicit decision to exclude a certain person, product, or service from one’s support or patronage because he, she or it in some way violates the principles held by the one engaged in the boycott. I am not aware of any conscious or explicit decision on the part of EWTN executives to ban Dr. Carson from the network airwaves or press; nor am I aware of anything in Carson’s character, achievements, or issue positions that would warrant such a boycott by a faithful Catholic media powerhouse. Yet the fact remains—having grown painfully obvious over the past few months—that, aside from occasionally mentioning him briefly in passing on a few programs and in one or two news articles, EWTN News has been avoiding Carson like the plague, neglecting to interview or discuss him and in general refusing to have anything to do with him. There seems to be an implicit, unspoken decision by the network’s journalism staff to simply ignore Ben Carson. And the answer to the simple question posed by this article is unfortunately also quite simple: EWTN is boycotting Dr. Carson because the corrupt and worldly mainstream media—from which the network’s journalism department now takes its cues—is deathly afraid of this particular presidential candidate and hates him with a passionate vengeance.

This, of course, leads to another question: Why does the Washington, D.C. media establishment so deeply fear and loathe Ben Carson? And the answer to this is that the Beltway media elite correctly perceives that Dr. Carson’s candidacy poses a major threat to everything it stands for. And what exactly does this radically secularist mainstream media empire stand for? Moral relativism, religious syncretism, unbridled materialism and hedonism, abortion on demand, continued funding for Planned Parenthood, the retention of ObamaCare and the unjust HHS mandate, unlimited government growth, higher taxes, endless national debt accumulation, the destruction of the nuclear family through sexual immorality and deviant lifestyles, the radical homosexual agenda, the continued stranglehold of powerful special interest groups on our national politics and economy, the recension of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties, and the thorough de-Christianization of our country.

By contrast, Ben Carson is a devout Christian who stands for moral absolutes, hard work and sacrifice, the right to life of the innocent unborn and an end to legalized abortion, the repeal of ObamaCare and the HHS mandate, smaller government, lower taxes, a balanced budget, traditional marriage and family values, personal responsibility, and a return to strict Constitutional government. However, Dr. Carson’s values alone cannot adequately explain the malicious ferocity of the mainstream media’s coordinated vitriolic assault on him or why he is perceived as being such a formidable threat to the establishment. Other Republican and Tea Party presidential candidates claim to stand for these things as well, yet they are not being half so viciously attacked by the mainstream media. Why is Ben Carson being treated differently?

The answer is that he is different from the other Republican presidential candidates in key respects—and these differences may collectively afford him a decisive advantage over his rivals when it comes to winning both the Republican nomination and the presidency. Among the unique characteristics that set Dr. Carson apart from the rest of the field:

1. He is a citizen statesman running for president by popular demand for the good of our country, not a career politician seeking high office for his own benefit.

2. He is a devout Christian man who reads the Bible daily and puts his faith into practice, not a Christian in name only.

3. He is a trustworthy and courageous man of impeccable character and principle who always strives to do what is right, or what he thinks is right, in any given situation regardless of public opinion or other external pressures.

4. He is a clear and independent common-sense thinker whose issue positions are not predetermined by partisan rhetoric.

5. He is a great communicator, blessed with a unique ability to discuss and explain complex issues and topics in simple terms that anyone can understand.

6. He has a clear vision for America’s future based on a return to sound Constitutional government and the wisdom of our nation’s Founders.

7. He is a splendid example of the American dream and a role model for American youth, having risen from childhood poverty to become one of the world’s greatest neurosurgeons.

8. As a philanthropist, he has made a significant contribution to improving America’s education system through the Carson Scholars Fund.

9. He is the most highly decorated American civilian among all the presidential candidates and the only one to have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

10. He has built up, and continues to steadily build up, a massive following among the American people, having already sold far more books, recruited far more campaign volunteers, and received far more individual donations than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or any other presidential candidate.

Those running the mainstream media establishment are all too happy to promote politically correct presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump who are in line with their own radically secularist philosophy and values. But the mere thought of a principled citizen statesman like Dr. Carson even approaching the White House is enough to send them into panic. The fact of the matter is that, despite his lack of political correctness, Ben Carson stands a significant chance of being nominated and elected President of the United States. The media elite is clearly aware of this, which explains their vicious and despicable attempt to destroy Carson’s candidacy. They desperately wish that he would just go away.

But the biggest reason of all for the mainstream media’s fear and hatred of Ben Carson is this: polls consistently indicate that he is the only Republican presidential candidate who can decisively defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election. Another unique characteristic of Dr. Carson as a presidential candidate is that, as an African-American who is deeply respected among his own people, he is the only Republican candidate who can realistically win a significant percentage of the black vote. If he were to win only 17 percent of the black vote in the general election, he would defeat Hillary Clinton and win the presidency. Furthermore, despite the mainstream media’s all-out effort to destroy his candidacy, polls reveal that Ben Carson has now gained the support of about 20 percent of African-American voters—and that percentage is likely to grow in the near future. In other words, Dr. Carson is the only Republican presidential candidate who can put an end to Hillary Clinton’s hope of finally becoming president herself. And therefore, Ben Carson is the only Republican who can realistically win the White House in 2016.

As the Second Vatican Council reminded the Church, those who are in charge of the communications media bear a serious responsibility to transmit the truth and to help shape public opinion in accordance with what is objectively true and good and right. When it comes to the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, the truth is that Ben Carson is the only viable alternative to Hillary Clinton as America’s next president. Therefore, EWTN should be taking advantage of its unique position as an independent and massively influential bully pulpit to help promote Dr. Carson’s candidacy among its U.S. viewers, listeners and readers and to galvanize millions of faithful American Catholics in support of his presidential campaign. I am not asking the network or its journalists to explicitly endorse Ben Carson for president (although that might not be such a bad idea); I only ask that they candidly recognize his providentially unique qualifications to lead our nation in light of the basic realities of the current presidential landscape and give him the fair share of attention he deserves.

EWTN’s beautiful and appropriate motto is “Sharing the Splendor of Truth,” and the network continues to do just that in admirable fashion as far as Catholic doctrine, liturgy, the sacraments, morality, prayer and spirituality are concerned. But when it comes to the Catholic media apostolate’s news coverage of the critically important 2016 presidential election season, the truth is not served by sweeping the best and most promising candidate in the race under the rug. It seems clearly apparent that Ben Carson has received so little attention on EWTN thus far because he has been so perniciously attacked, maligned, and belittled by the morally toxic Washington mainstream media establishment. That’s a shame. A faithful Catholic television network should not be permitting the lies and deceptions of worldly mainstream media outlets to influence the decisions of its own journalism department. On the contrary, EWTN should do whatever is necessary to reclaim and preserve its original identity as an independent voice of truth and reason, clarity and common sense in a world ever more filled with lies, irrationality, ambiguity and craziness. Instead of allowing itself to be dragged along by the Beltway media machine, EWTN News should be setting its own agenda based on its own values and striving to influence political discussions and events in a wholly different direction.

The unjustified and irrational EWTN media blackout of Ben Carson must end. The network can, and should, utilize its tremendous influence to support and further advance the presidential candidacy of Dr. Carson with the true good of our country in mind. As Catholics vote, so goes our nation. If we can get a majority of American Catholic voters firmly committed to Ben Carson, we can elect a new president who shares our Christian faith and moral values and prevent another radically secularist, scandal-ridden career politician from succeeding Barack Obama. That is a goal worth achieving, but it may be very difficult to achieve it without the vital support and assistance of the Eternal Word Television Network.


Copyright © 2015 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

The One Hundred Day Reign of King Trump Has Ended

Photo by Gage Skidmore
Used with permission

Great news! After three straight months of lording it over the GOP presidential candidate field with buckets of his own money spent on glossy advertising, dozens of rousing campaign speeches, and the undivided attention and unremitting adulation of an obsequious and politically correct mainstream media machine, His Majesty Lord Donald Trump the Powerful and Mighty has finally been toppled from his lofty throne by the humble and the lowly. Much to the shock and confusion of Mr. Trump and his loyal media allies, award-winning neurosurgeon, author, speaker and philanthropist Ben Carson--who was widely dismissed as a longshot five months ago--has now emerged as the leading Republican presidential candidate in nationwide polls. For millions of faithful Carson supporters like myself, this is an incredibly energizing development that we have worked hard to achieve and a proud moment to witness in the ongoing saga of the Carson presidential campaign. For a devout Christian, soft-spoken, African-American, grassroots Tea Party candidate, a citizen statesman with no political experience and largely negative mainstream media coverage, to sneak up from behind and depose the wealthy and well-connected king of the GOP field several months ahead of the initial presidential primary elections is no small feat. This remarkable development is a testament to Dr. Carson's fidelity to traditional religious principles and moral values, his lifetime of stellar achievement, his unique communication skills, his respect for the Constitution, his hope-filled vision for our country based on the Founders' philosophy, the secure bond of trust he is slowly but steadily forging with a growing segment of the American people, and last but not least to the patient labors of The 2016 Committee in making him better known and convincing him to run for president in the first place.

At this point, I feel sorry for the tens of millions of Americans, including many good and well-intentioned people, who have been duped by the mainstream media into supporting Donald Trump for president and believing that this billionaire real estate and casino magnate is just the kind of man we need to lead our country. The truth is that, aside from Hillary Clinton, Trump would make the worst possible president of the United States to succeed Barack Obama. He is an arrogant, greedy, dishonest, corrupt, and elitist Republican in name only presidential wannabe driven by lust for power who has identified himself politically as a Democrat for most of his life, who has donated millions of dollars to the Clintons, who likes ObamaCare, who supports Planned Parenthood, who has amassed much of his fortune by forcing other businesses into bankruptcy, who favors the irresponsible fiscal policies of the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration, and who could care less about the average American struggling to make ends meet. To be sure, Trump talks a great game on any number of issues to make himself look like a conservative Republican; but if (God forbid) he ever ended up in the White House, he would turn out to be just another corrupt and scandal-ridden career politician beholden to the special interest groups that have made him rich and that control the Washington establishment. Much like his good friend Hillary Clinton, he is a dangerous demagogue stirring up the masses with bold rhetoric and empty fantasies in a strenuous yet ultimately fruitless effort to seize the powerful office of president he craves.

Thankfully, Americans are now waking up from the mainstream media deception to the reality that Donald Trump cannot be trusted, and they are choosing instead to rally around a trustworthy citizen statesman who actually represents their interests and who is running for president by popular demand, Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson. And this is occurring, ironically, despite the best efforts of the mainstream media to convince the American people that Ben Carson is not qualified to serve as president. Naturally, the media elites, who are closely tied to the corrupt Washington political establishment, are shocked and confused by this development because they didn't see it coming, and they are disturbed by it because of what it portends for the future of that establishment should Ben Carson be nominated and elected President of the United States next year. They just want Dr. Carson to go away, but that's not happening, so now they will resort to concocting and launching further malicious attacks on his character and abilities and to craftily manipulating public opinion in their increasingly desperate attempts to destroy his candidacy. Furthermore, they will utilize psychological warfare, claiming that Carson's leadership of the GOP presidential field is just a fluke and that his candidacy will fizzle out by the time the primaries roll around.

I fully expect that, notwithstanding this onslaught of mainstream media hostility, Ben Carson will continue to steadily build momentum in the polls during the final weeks of 2015, leaving Donald Trump's record high of 32 percent in the dust as he eventually gains the support of 45 to 50 percent of likely Republican primary voters by the end of this year, which will make him the first and only GOP presidential candidate this election cycle to achieve such a feat. Based on his progress so far, Carson is likely to rise dramatically above the rest of the GOP field between now and the early presidential primaries in January, and the likelihood of his actually winning the Republican nomination for president in 2016 will continue to grow with each passing day. I personally believe that God is raising up Dr. Carson to be our next president so that our broken, weakened, and worn-out nation can be healed, strengthened, and renewed through his wise leadership, and that all the efforts of his enemies to prevent this from taking place will ultimately come to nothing. The remarkable saga of Ben Carson's unexpected rise to political prominence signals an exciting turning point in American history. We the people have been betrayed and disappointed time and time again by corrupt politicians, and even by former Tea Party leaders who have succumbed to the Washington establishment, but with a true citizen statesman like Dr. Carson at the helm, we are going to take our country back.

Trump for king.
Hillary for queen.
Ben Carson for president!

Move Over, Trump

by Justin Soutar

Billionaire real estate tycoon and casino owner Donald Trump's unduly long stretch as the leading Republican presidential candidate is finally nearing its end, thank goodness. After enjoying a remarkably solid two and a half months in the mainstream media limelight standing head and shoulders above the rest of the gradually shrinking GOP field, public opinion polls now indicate that Trump's lengthy popularity surge has finally begun to abate. Meanwhile, the polls are also registering a remarkable development that has shocked the mainstream media and startled the Republican Party establishment: Trump not only has a challenger, but a robust challenger at that, in an independent Tea Party candidate with steadily growing grassroots support who was widely dismissed as a longshot just five months ago when he entered the race: retired neurosurgeon, author, speaker, and philanthropist Dr. Benjamin S. Carson. Furthermore, these same polls reveal that Donald Trump is no longer the undisputed leader of the GOP pack in the race for his party's presidential nomination. Ben Carson is now tied with him and--according to some of the latest polls--he actually surpasses Trump in popularity, making him the new front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

How did this happen? How did a relatively unknown, somewhat older, mild-mannered, intelligent and compassionate world-class neurosurgeon from Middle America whom few took seriously as presidential material five months ago--a grassroots Tea Party candidate with no previous political experience, no Washington connections, little mainstream media attention, and no financial backing from large corporations--manage to travel from relative obscurity to the head of the pack? The answer is that for a number of years, through his well-written books and straightforward, easy-to-understand talks, Dr. Ben Carson has been quietly winning the hearts and minds of millions of Americans all over this country with his inspiring story of personal achievement, his devout Christian faith and traditional moral values, his irreproachable character as a man of honesty and integrity, and his hope-filled vision for America's future based on our country's founding principles. Furthermore, Dr. Carson's brilliant and courageous impromptu address at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast revealed him to the public as the most articulate conservative since Ronald Reagan, catapulting him into the political spotlight and unwittingly igniting a nationwide grassroots movement to get him to run for president. Over the next two years, that movement to draft Ben Carson into the Republican presidential contest continued to grow, slowly but steadily, until the persistent clamoring finally convinced the reticent Dr. Carson to enter the race this past May. Ever since then, his name recognition and grassroots support have continued to grow steadily, albeit at a somewhat accelerated pace.

The saga of Ben Carson's rise from oblivion to prominence as a Republican presidential candidate within a remarkably short period of time is unlike that of any other candidate for the GOP nomination. Wealthy contenders like Jeb Bush and Donald Trump have spent buckets of cash to rocket their way into the limelight virtually overnight, but they have been unable to sustain their lead in polls because they are not trustworthy conservatives to begin with. Two other candidates, Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, may enjoy stellar Tea Party credentials, but for one reason or another, both seem to have reached their plateau in the polls and cannot get above third or fourth place. Several other candidates including Rick Santorum and Carly Fiorina have temporarily surged to second or third place by performing well in a debate, only to lose momentum and drop behind because they had failed to firmly connect with their audience. And all of the other candidates have either dropped out of the race or remained more or less stuck in the longshot category, watching their single-digit popularity rise and fall with changing winds of public opinion. Only Ben Carson has made slow but steady progress towards clinching the GOP nomination. As the old saying goes, "Slow and steady wins the race." The 2016 Republican presidential nominee won't be the candidate who made the biggest flash in the pan; it'll be the one who has made the best and most thorough preparation at the grassroots level among primary election voters in key states. That unique candidate is Dr. Benjamin Carson.

Based on the excellent progress he has made so far, it is quite realistic to expect that Dr. Carson's popularity will continue to rise even further in the coming weeks, allowing him to emerge as the clear and undisputed front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Whether he will maintain that solid lead over the rest of the GOP field for the next three months until the first presidential primary elections begin to take place in January 2016 remains to be seen, of course, but it is possible that he will achieve just that, leading the Republican Party to coalesce firmly around his candidacy and make him their presidential standard bearer as the GOP nominee.

We Americans are getting very sick and tired of the corrupt, well-connected, politically correct establishment politicians and candidates who are incessantly fawned upon by the equally corrupt mainstream media, candidates who promise to look out for our nation's best interests and then betray us for the sake of their own careers once they arrive in Washington. We want a trustworthy candidate for president--a God-fearing citizen statesman who will govern wisely in accordance with our Creator's law and the Constitution, a true leader who will speak the truth (or what he believes to be the truth) and who will make the right decision (or what he believes to be the right decision) in each situation regardless of corporate pressure, public opinion, or political considerations. And we the people, tens of millions of us, are coming to realize that Dr. Carson is exactly the trustworthy leader our country needs for president at this crucial moment in our history. He has the impeccable character, the religious and moral values, the respect for our Constitution, the real-life experience, the unique talents, and the inspiring vision required to return our country to greatness. That's why we are uniting to rally around him for president--and that's why we the people are going to nominate and elect Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson as the next president of the United States.

Go Dr. Carson!


Copyright 2015 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

A Few Reflections on the Presidential Race

With the first Republican presidential debate having been held last night and broadcast live on national TV, the contest for the 2016 presidential election is now well under way, and things are a bit crazy at this point on the GOP side of the political aisle.

In the last two months, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump has rocketed from obscurity to the head of the pack, "trumping" all his rivals in the latest polls. Although this development was unexpected by many observers including myself, it really isn't too surprising considering the enormous sums of money Trump has to spend on his campaign, the attention he is getting from the mainstream media, and his rather formidable persona and ability to speak out clearly on many of the issues facing our country. That said, Trump has a number of serious liabilities that I believe will result in his popularity declining steadily over the coming months as we approach the Republican presidential primary elections. His major problem is that he is a super-wealthy establishment politician like John McCain and Mitt Romney, and polls indicate that the American people are sick and tired of such career politicians. Obviously Trump can talk a great game on many issues dear to conservatives, but can the American people really trust him to do what he says he'll do if he buys the nomination and if he manages to snatch the White House away from Hillary Clinton? I would say no. Someone who hails from the top one percent income bracket and uses his millions to buy the presidential election simply will not serve the interests of the average American or the best interests of this country. There is also a disturbing lack of consistency regarding Trump's positions on important issues such as abortion. Granted, Trump has bellowed that he would shut down the federal government, if necessary, to defund Planned Parenthood. But apparently several of his campaign managers have ties to the abortion industry. And then there are some very legitimate questions and doubts about Trump's character and values, including whether all of his money was earned honestly and so forth. Basically, I think the more closely people scrutinize Trump, the more problematic facts they will learn about him and the less they will think he is truly fit to serve our country as president.

Unfortunately, the Conservative Action Fund, an excellent political fundraising organization that I respect and support, has just announced that it is endorsing Donald Trump for president. I am shocked and disappointed that this organization has gotten caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment and fallen victim to "Trumpmania." In my opinion, the CAF should retract this foolish, emotion-driven endorsement of an untrustworthy establishment politician and instead make the rational decision to endorse a trustworthy conservative who can decisively defeat Hillary Clinton in the next election such as Ben Carson, Marco Rubio or Rand Paul.

It was good to hear that Senator Rand Paul did so well at the debate last night. I can't help but like and admire this guy. He's a man of principle, and unlike many of his corrupt Republican colleagues, he never compromises his principles for the sake of expediency or political gain. And he's a man of action who fights like a bulldog in the Senate to get things done while many of his  colleagues slumber in comfortable inaction under the spell of the Obama administration. In my mind, Senator Paul is one of only three candidates who should be seriously considered for the Republican nomination because of his upright character, sound issue positions, and ability to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Another, perhaps even better candidate with that winning combination would be Senator Marco Rubio; although he's a little down in the polls at the moment, that can change and probably will. He has appeal and charisma, he's a faithful Catholic, he raises the exciting possibility of our nation's first Hispanic president, and he would automatically defeat Hillary Clinton by winning a large share of the Hispanic vote.

As some of my readers are aware, I am a staunch supporter of Ben Carson for the Republican nomination and the presidency because he is a well-respected, trustworthy and articulate conservative leader of devout Christian faith and traditional moral values with the right positions on critical issues who will decisively defeat Hillary Clinton by winning a large share of the black and Hispanic vote. Since May of last year, I've been involved with The 2016 Committee (formerly the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee), the fantastic super PAC that's been working hard on Ben Carson's behalf (but separately from his official presidential committee, in accordance with federal election law) to make sure he a) runs for president, b) wins the Republican nomination, and c) wins the White House. We've accomplished the first goal already and are currently focused on the bigger challenge of the second. Many are calling Ben Carson a longshot, but recall that Barack Obama himself was also a longshot for his party's nomination eight years ago, when everybody was certain that Hillary Clinton would be the nominee. We're using the same entirely legitimate strategy that Obama successfully employed to snatch the Democratic nomination away from his richer and more powerful rival Hillary Clinton in 2008. That strategy involved early fundraising and grassroots organizing in key primary election states at least two years ahead of the actual primary elections. The candidate who actually wins the Republican nomination for president won't necessarily be the one with the most money to spend or the one who surges highest in the polls; it'll be the one who is best organized, the one with the most volunteers and the greatest number of individual donors, the one can most successfully mobilize the grassroots and turn out the vote. That candidate is Ben Carson.

Although I did not see last night's debate, I read that Carson did very well in it, and that as a result of his performance, he has now moved from the fourth to the third most popular Republican presidential candidate. This is great news which indicates that Carson's candidacy is continuing to steadily gain momentum. I firmly believe that, if it seriously intends to defeat Hillary Clinton or whoever the Democrats nominate next year, the Republican Party must reject weak establishment Republican In Name Only candidates like Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie and instead choose to unite behind a trustworthy conservative and citizen statesman like Ben Carson and make him their standard bearer in 2016. Many other Republican contenders can excite the party's base, but only Ben Carson can walk into a room full of liberals, give an extemporaneous thirty-minute speech and receive a standing ovation at the end of it. This guy is special. He's authentic, intelligent, compassionate, and a great communicator who can speak the truth to people's hearts as no other Republican candidate for president can do. Our country needs his leadership. I hope and pray that he will win the Republican nomination, and I encourage all my readers who are not already doing so to support him for president.

Ben Carson for President

by Justin Soutar

As we gradually head towards the end of the immoral, corrupt and disastrous Obama administration (thank goodness) and begin to approach the 2016 presidential election, the American public is faced with a bewildering menagerie of contenders for the Republican nomination. A number of these candidates, such as Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio and Governors Scott Walker, John Kasich, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Perry, are men of sound character and principle with the right positions on many critical issues, any of whom would, in my opinion, probably make a good if not excellent president. Two of the candidates, Senators Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz, while also men of sound character and principle with the right positions on domestic issues, unfortunately espouse the aggressive interventionist foreign policy of the Bush administration championed by Israel’s elite radical Zionist minority that has fueled the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and destabilized the entire Middle East, just as John Paul II predicted would happen. Several contenders, including Governors Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Mitt Romney, are wealthy Republicans in name only who would do little to clean up the current fiscal, legal and moral mess in Washington. The rest of the field is an even more mixed bag of presidential wannabes, including exotic candidates such as billionaire celebrity Donald Trump and former HP executive Carly Fiorina, few if any of whom stand a real chance of winning their party’s nomination (much less the White House) next year.

This rather embarrassing spectacle of dozens of candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination—among whom are eight to ten serious possibilities—evinces a major problem within the GOP that, if not acknowledged and corrected in the near future, risks negatively affecting its chances to reclaim the White House in 2016. It’s not for nothing that Democratic politicians and mainstream media pundits in the last few years have been repeating almost incessantly that Republicans are divided. What they say is true: Republicans are divided between principled Tea Party constitutionalists (Marco Rubio, Thom Tillis, Mia Love, etc.) and corrupt Republicans in name only (John Boehner, Thad Cochran, Lamar Alexander, etc)., and they are further divided on foreign policy between interventionists like Santorum and isolationists like Paul. Even worse than these divisions, however, is the fact that Republicans themselves are seemingly unaware of the seriousness of their division problem when it comes to a) nominating their best possible presidential candidate and b) winning the presidency. If they really want to do both next year, Republicans must hasten to recognize and address their own crisis of leadership. Their problem is not that they don’t have any leaders for the American public to rally behind; their problem is that they have too many such leaders. Like a plot of overcrowded and stunted garden vegetables competing for nourishment from a limited supply of soil nutrients, this unhealthily crowded field of would-be presidents is hungrily devouring supporters and voters from a limited electoral base, thus restricting the amount of support for each individual candidate and making it nearly impossible for any one of them to clearly dominate the GOP field as we head towards the all-important presidential primary elections.

If Republicans are truly serious about defeating Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or whomever else the Democrats nominate in 2016, they must call an abrupt halt to their currently running game show, “Who wants to be the GOP nominee?” and discipline themselves to get down to business. Specifically, they must eliminate all longshots from consideration, cut the field down to their ten leading candidates, identify their strongest possible candidate from among those top ten who is realistically likely to win both the GOP nomination and the presidency, begin coalescing now around that single leader, and start working like mad to ensure that that particular candidate clinches the Republican nomination. That is the winning strategy the GOP must adopt if it intends to regain control of the White House in 2016. Unless the party achieves this kind of unity and focus within the next six months, its nominee will in all likelihood be another mediocre one who will go down to defeat in the next presidential election.

After all, only one candidate is going to win the Republican nomination for president. And only a strong candidate with a clear identity, impeccable character, traditional values, broad public appeal, and a super PAC working to mobilize the grassroots on his behalf will be able to defeat the likes of Hillary Clinton. Therefore, Republicans must be very careful whom they choose to nominate for the presidency. The worst possible choice would be to repeat the mistake of 2008 and 2012 by settling on a super-wealthy, big-government Republican establishment career politician like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie or Mitt Romney. That is a proven recipe for defeat. Such a Republican in name only bears too much similarity to his Democratic opponent both in reality and in the minds of voters and simply cannot generate sufficient enthusiasm among Republican and independent voters to decisively defeat that opponent. If the Democratic nominee were a Democrat in name only, this approach might work, but the Democrats themselves have enough sense not to nominate someone who is a Republican in Democratic garb. In next year’s open contest between two presidential candidates, their respective identities must be absolutely clear. Only a genuine Republican will soundly defeat a genuine Democrat. And these days, a genuine Republican usually means a Tea Party Republican.

So which leading presidential candidate should the Republican Party choose to rally around to ensure it wins the White House in 2016? According to a recent NBC/WSJ national poll taken June 22, 2015, the top ten contenders are, in descending order of popularity:

1) Jeb Bush,

2) Scott Walker,

3) Marco Rubio,

4) Ben Carson,

5) Mike Huckabee,

6) Rand Paul,

7) Rick Perry,

8) Ted Cruz,

9) Chris Christie, and

10) Carly Fiorina.

As wealthy Republicans in name only attempting to buy the nomination, Bush and Christie are liabilities to their party who must be firmly rejected. Fiorina is not sufficiently well known or supported to win the necessary delegates to clinch the nomination. Scott Walker may be a great governor, but his positions on certain issues are controversial within the party, which makes him less than an ideal nominee. Although a genuine conservative with some public appeal, Mike Huckabee is having trouble getting more than ten percent in any of the polls, while Rick Perry cannot get out of single digits. The same goes for Ted Cruz, who would be too similar to President Bush on foreign policy. That leaves Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and Rand Paul as the three strongest contenders for the GOP nomination. There is little doubt that any one of these three men would be able to defeat Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden and win the presidency in 2016. They are all trustworthy conservatives, Christian men of good character and moral values, with reputed integrity and common sense and the right positions on the critical issues facing America today. They are all honest and proven public servants, not slick-talking career politicians, and they are all blessed with outstanding leadership qualities that the American people are looking for in a president. The only remaining question is: Which of these three leading candidates should Republicans choose to nominate? Let’s take a closer look at these top contenders.

Elected to the U.S. Senate for Kentucky as part of the Tea Party Republican landslide elections of 2010, Rand Paul has earned a solid reputation as a no-nonsense conservative in Washington who stubbornly refuses to compromise his core principles for the sake of political advantage. He is the son of respected former Congressman and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who was a Tea Party Republican decades ahead of his time. But while his father never gained sufficient backing to win the Republican nomination for president, the younger Paul’s public appeal is significantly broader. He is known and liked for introducing and gaining political support for the Life at Conception Act, which if passed by Congress and signed into law would protect unborn children throughout the United States from abortion. He is also known and liked for his vocal opposition to unconstitutional Obama administration policies, including the ever-unpopular Affordable Care Act, executive amnesty for illegal immigrants, and the administration’s massive phone surveillance program. A true statesman with decent looks to match his character, Paul has the force of personality and the oratorical skills necessary to challenge Hillary Clinton and put her on the defensive—and there is no doubt he would do just that. A head-to-head matchup with Clinton not long ago showed Paul leading her by double digits. The main caveat to choosing Rand Paul as the Republican presidential nominee is that he would fail to gain significant support from black and Hispanic voters, majorities of whom are actually conservative on social issues despite their tendency to vote Democratic. Because these groups of minority voters will comprise an increasing share of the U.S. electorate in the years ahead, Republicans must actively reach out to them if they want to win future elections. But if nominated, Paul would likely still manage to win the White House in 2016 despite this handicap.

Another freshman senator from the Tea Party landslide of 2010, Marco Rubio has similarly stellar conservative credentials. In addition to vigorously supporting the Life at Conception Act and opposing ObamaCare and executive amnesty, he has introduced or co-sponsored several bills to protect religious liberties and moral conscience rights. The son of impoverished Cuban Catholic immigrants to Florida, Rubio’s story of achieving the American Dream has inspired millions of people across the nation. Elected to the Senate while still in his thirties, Rubio is at forty-four the youngest presidential candidate from either major party. Rubio’s youth and optimistic personality, his Hispanic identity, his humble immigrant background, and his good looks combine to give him movie-star charisma reminiscent of what Barack Obama enjoyed in 2008. The prospect of America’s first Hispanic president is an exciting one that offers the GOP a serious opportunity to change the political landscape by drawing millions of Hispanic voters into the Republican Party. It would make good sense for the Republicans to nominate this guy because he would pull a large share of the Hispanic and black vote--and likely a majority of the Catholic vote as well--away from Hillary Clinton, resulting in a landslide GOP victory for the White House. Rubio would undoubtedly be an excellent choice as the Republican presidential nominee.
 

The third frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination differs markedly from the other two leading candidates, as well as from the rest of the GOP field, in several respects. A world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, best-selling author, gifted speaker and noted philanthropist, Ben Carson is the only African-American in the race, the only leading Republican candidate with no previous political experience, and the only candidate running for president by popular demand. Carson’s famous speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, in which he frankly compared America’s moral and economic decline to that of ancient Rome and courageously condemned ObamaCare with President Obama himself sitting nearby, propelled him onto the national stage. His meteoric rise from refusing to even consider running for president three years ago to being a leading candidate today is a tribute to the organizational skills and dedicated efforts of his super PAC, formerly the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, now The 2016 Committee. Here are nine reasons why Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson should be chosen as the Republican presidential nominee in 2016:

1. Ben Carson is a universally admired example of the American Dream. From his inauspicious poverty-stricken single-parent childhood in a Detroit ghetto, Carson rose to become the nation’s leading pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University at the age of thirty-three. Over the following three decades, he drew worldwide acclaim for skillfully performing thousands of life-saving brain surgeries with an extremely low patient mortality rate. During the past twenty-one years, through the Carson Scholars Fund, he and his wife have been working to reform America’s education system by encouraging better academic performance and helping promising students from low-income families get the higher education they deserve. He has received thirty-eight honorary doctorates and numerous awards in recent years including the NAACP’s Spingarn Award, the Horatio Alger award given to extraordinary self-made Americans, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award. Jesse Jackson has called him a role model for all the youth of today, and he was ranked in a December 2014 poll as the sixth most admired man in America. Because he is admired and respected by Americans of all races and backgrounds, Carson will win a large number of votes in the 2016 presidential election.

2. Ben Carson is a man of devout Christian faith, good moral character and traditional values. A large majority of the American people are still Christian, and they are tired of radically secularist politicians like President Obama who relentlessly attack their traditional values of faith, family, and freedom; furthermore, they are similarly weary of middle-of-the-road politicians who profess traditional values but refuse to vigorously defend them when they are attacked. By contrast, Carson is a devout, Bible-believing Christian and a man of prayer, humility and compassion; he lives according to the Ten Commandments and believes in the sanctity of every human life, religious freedom, traditional marriage, and the importance of the nuclear family to a healthy society. Carson is also a firm believer in the realities of the natural law, unalienable rights, and ordered liberty upon which the Founders built this nation. Carson not only shares these values with Middle Americans, he will consistently articulate, uphold and defend them as president, just as he has done his whole life.

3. Ben Carson is a man of wisdom, common sense, courage, and calm decisive action in critical situations. At this time of national crisis, we desperately need a great and wise leader who can discern what should be done in a given situation, who can make the right decision, and who has the courage to follow through on that decision regardless of political considerations and negative criticism. As someone who has been reading the Bible’s Book of Proverbs daily for years, Carson is accustomed to allowing God’s own wisdom to guide his daily life. Additionally, as a brain surgeon for nearly thirty years, Carson gained abundant experience making critical life or death decisions under tremendous pressure. God has blessed him with the ability to remain calm, think things through carefully, and make the right decision amid difficult circumstances. As president, Carson will do this for America, offering the wise leadership that is necessary to return our nation to greatness regardless of the challenges that we may face.

4. Ben Carson is a strict constitutionalist. Unlike President Obama, who has exceeded his authority in violation of the Constitution on numerous occasions throughout his presidency, Ben Carson will govern America in strict accordance with the Constitution. This is because he prizes the Constitution as a safeguard of the rights and freedom of American citizens against the general tendency of the federal government to assume more and more power. As he wrote in One Nation (p. 172): “The Constitution was written primarily to protect the rights of the people and not the right of the government to rule the people. It restrains the natural tendencies of government to expand while disregarding the rights of its constituents. Our freedoms are safe as long as we abide by its principles.” Carson understands that his primary role as president will be to enforce all laws passed by Congress that do not conflict with the Constitution. He will also appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will interpret the Constitution objectively as the Founders meant it to be interpreted, not subjectively as they think it should be interpreted.

5. Ben Carson is an honest citizen statesman, not a corrupt career politician. Poll after poll reveals that Americans have had enough of corrupt establishment politicians in both the major parties. In the 2014 Congressional and gubernatorial elections, they overwhelmingly rejected establishment politicians in favor of honest statesmen and women whom they could trust to represent the best interests of their state and nation. As a citizen statesman, President Carson will focus on doing what is best for America rather than on advancing his political career. After all, Ben Carson never intended to run for public office, and he is only running for president now because millions of Americans have urged him to do so. 

6. God will reunite and heal our divided and broken land through Ben Carson. Our nation is currently more divided than at any time since the Civil War. For example, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider than it is today. President Obama and other unscrupulous politicians have exploited and exacerbated these divisions to their own advantage, stirring up hatred between whites and blacks, rich and poor, men and women, young and old. These social divisions threaten to tear our nation apart. Because he is so widely admired and respected across social boundaries, nominating and electing Ben Carson for president will bring Americans back together and restore American unity. Thus will begin the process of healing the hurts and brokenness these divisions have caused. Carson’s official campaign slogan, “One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all,” encapsulates this theme of unity based on America’s founding principles.

7. Ben Carson is a great communicator. Ever since that historic address at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, Ben Carson has enjoyed a growing reputation as the most articulate conservative since Ronald Reagan. Although many of the ten currently leading Republican candidates would make a good president, none can match Carson’s unique ability to take complicated issues and break them down into clear, simple terms that anyone can understand. This ability to communicate effectively with potential voters gives Carson a crucial advantage over all the other Republican presidential contenders. The GOP needs a presidential candidate who can connect not just with its own base, but with the American people in general. Here again Carson fits the bill.

8. Ben Carson has a super PAC in his corner. If you’re a presidential candidate these days, you stand little real chance of winning either major party’s nomination unless you have a super PAC separate from your official presidential committee working full time on your behalf to organize and mobilize primary voters in key states at least two years prior to the presidential election. It was a super PAC that enabled freshman senator Barack Obama to snatch the Democratic nomination away from Hillary Clinton in 2008, and it was a super PAC that enabled Mitt Romney to defeat his rivals for the Republican nomination in 2012. Without the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee and its successor, The 2016 Committee, Ben Carson would not have risen to his current position as a leading presidential candidate. Thanks to his super PAC, Carson has a realistic chance of winning enough state primary elections, and thus enough delegates, to actually clinch the GOP nomination for president. The same just can’t be said for Rick Santorum or Carly Fiorina.

9. Ben Carson is sure to win the White House. As a respected leader in the African-American community, GOP presidential nominee Ben Carson will automatically pull more than enough black votes away from Hillary Clinton to ensure her defeat on Election Day 2016. If Carson were to receive just 17 percent of the black vote nationwide, Clinton would lose all the critical swing states and Carson would win the election. Polling data indicate that Carson will actually win at least double that minimum percentage of the African-American vote. Furthermore, polling research also indicates that Carson will win a large minority, if not a majority, of the Hispanic vote. The result will be a landslide Carson victory. If Republicans want to be sure of winning the White House, their logical choice will be to nominate Ben Carson for president.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

To summarize: The Republican Party now has an exciting and historic opportunity to nominate a presidential candidate who is universally admired and respected, who is a great communicator, who shares the religious and moral values of Middle America, who will who will govern wisely in accordance with the Constitution, who will help to reunite and heal America, who can win the nomination, and who can decisively win the presidency. At this critical juncture in our nation’s history, to abandon this golden opportunity by settling for yet another Republican in name only loser such as Jeb Bush would be the epitome of foolishness. The GOP will deserve to lose again if it attempts to send another mediocre candidate to the White House. Now is the time for the Republican Party to unite around its single best candidate for president of the United States--Ben Carson--and work tirelessly to ensure he wins the nomination. It would help further Carson’s cause if some of the other Republican presidential candidates, especially those stuck in the longshot arena, were to voluntarily withdraw from the race and declare their support for Ben Carson. These other candidates should try to put the good of their party, and especially the good of their country as a whole, ahead of their individual interests and political careers. As the old saying goes, in union there is strength. Excessive individualism is hurting the GOP more than anything else. What is needed now is a spirit of generous self-sacrifice on behalf of the common good. America stands in dire need of Ben Carson’s leadership. It’s time for the Republican Party to acknowledge that fact and act accordingly.

Copyright © 2015 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.