Dr. Carson the extremist?
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
Please cue up the "Twilight Zone" theme, because this story would qualify as an episode.
According to news reports, the left has found a new person to demonize and his name is Dr. Ben Carson:
"An iconic American civil rights group that was founded to fight the Ku Klux Klan is now taking aim at the only African-American to hint he might run for president in 2016 -- because he opposes gay marriage.
Republican Ben Carson, a retired world-class pediatric neurosurgeon, has found himself listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center's 'Extremist Watch' website alongside neo-Nazis, skinheads, and Klansmen, in a peculiar example of the group's mission-creep.
Carson said Monday that the characterization is 'projectionist and ignorant.'
Asked if he thought the SPLC was 'crooked,' Carson replied, 'Oh, definitely. And I -- certainly that's been the impression of everybody I've heard from.'
'I find it very ironic that they would castigate someone as a hater whose entire professional career was spent saving people's lives,' he said.
Carson described a scholarship program he has endowed, and literacy projects he has set up 'specifically in poor areas, so that kids can learn the love of reading, which will have a profound impact on their academic performance.'
'But because I don't agree with them about traditional marriage, I'm a "hater",' he mused. 'And that's pretty interesting that someone could come away with that belief.'
My guess is that Dr. Carson threatens the Southern Poverty Law Center in a few ways:
1) Dr. Carson believes that African Americans are in control of their own lives and can succeed, as he did becoming a first-rate surgeon;
2) Dr. Carson does not believe that giving 90% of your vote to one political party has been valuable to African Americans. The best evidence of this is all of those African American congressional districts with no jobs, lots of crime and lousy public schools that most Democrat leaders do not send their kids to. Again and again, African Americans are overlooked, except on the first Tuesday of November when a Democrat comes around to play the race card; and,
3) Dr. Carson's position on "same sex marriage" means that he is "a hater" in the eyes of so many in the left. This is incredible since Dr. Carson has the same position about "same sex marriage" that Mr Obama had when he ran for president.
The bad news is that we will hear this kind of demonization from the left, specially as they come to terms with the country's electoral reality. The good news is that this classification of Dr. Carson as an extremist speaks loudly about the irrlevance of organizations like the SPLC.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/02/dr_carson_the_extremist.html#ixzz3RLR84ktw
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Southern Poverty Law Center places Dr. Ben Carson on its extremist watch list
Like he's liable to burn down a school or bomb a church or something.
By Thomas Lifson
The Southern Poverty Law Center has descended to the level of self-parody (though it has a lot of company on the left) with its posting of Dr. Ben Carson on its “ extremist files” list. Dr. Carson, a world-renowned brain surgeon, has served as inspiration for generations of African-Americans, and was portrayed on screen by Cuba Gooding in the movie version of his autobiography Gifted Hands.
But to SPLC, desperate to find targets and keep the donations coming in to support the lavish salaries of its executives, apparently no convoluted reasoning is too bizarre.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson rapidly ascended as a far-right political star after publicly scolding President Obama, whom he sat a few feet away from, at a National Prayer Breakfast in February 2013. Carson’s reproach of Obama for his health care and tax policies went viral, unleashing a flood of adulation from right-wing media and hate groups. Carson’s own story as an “up by the bootstraps” black man reared in poverty translated into an inspiring, magnetic narrative that captured media attention. Soon he was appearing as the keynoter at a rash of right-wing and hate group gatherings, linking gays with pedophiles, comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany and endorsing biblical economic practices for 21st century America. A movement to draft Carson as a presidential candidate took off in 2014, raising more than $7 million by June, according to its website. Carson has coyly declined to say whether he would run as a Republican or on a third-party ticket, but media interviews suggest that he is increasingly willing to run on some ticket.
Apparently, criticizing President Obama qualifies you as an extremist, in the SPLC's eyes. Or maybe it is opposing the redefinition of marriage that is the trigger.
William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection spotted the listing, and noted how flimsy was the reasoning:
Although the center makes a bald assertion that the potential 2016 presidential candidate is anti-gay, it offers no proof other than these former Carson quotes:
“Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Association, a group advocating pedophilia], be they people who believe in bestiality—it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.”
When interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News March 26, 2013, Carson also said:
“[I]f we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”
Note that Carson didn’t claim he’s anti-LGBT. He’s proudly opposed to gay marriage because, as he said, it changes the well-established definition of marriage.
The SPLC has made a thriving business out of hurling hateful and often unjustified accusations. It has assets that totaled $190 million in 2009, including an offshore Cayman Islands bank account.
Hat tip: iOTW Report
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/02/southern_poverty_law_center_places_dr_ben_carson_on_its_extremist_watch_list.html#ixzz3RLRGaGps
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
|
