Dr. Carson, the triumph of the paranoid style and the collapse of social trust

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

The loss of trust in the political process is, on one level, completely understandable and not necessarily a bad thing. The plain fact is that our political leadership has contributed mightily to the breakdown of social trust that characterizes our present dilemma. Our political system is, in a whole variety of ways, corrupt to an unprecedented degree and in drastic need of reform. But this implies that anyone seriously aspiring to political leadership must have a reform agenda, and specific policy proposals to address the crisis.

 

This is precisely the dilemma of a party now driven by factions more interested in purging the ideologically impure from their own ranks than they are in moving the ball down the field to achieve systemic reform. That dilemma stems, in large part, from a fundamental misconception of the very purpose of politics, which — in a representative democracy — necessarily entails compromise at the end of the day in order to come closer to implementing a vision of the common good. But if one's purpose in political engagement is to argue that any cooperation in the legislative process is itself a betrayal — indeed that no good at all, by definition, can come from engaging in the process — then the only mission becomes to sew a contempt for politics itself. It becomes unnecessary to speak of reform, only to give the most dramatic expression possible to discontentment and suspicion of the current regime.

 

Which brings us to the matter of Dr. Ben Carson's vault to the top of the most recent polls. A neurosurgeon with no political experience, Carson exemplifies the Washington outsider to the point of parody. His policy proposals (such as they are) remain ridiculously vague — such as somehow basing income tax reform on the biblical concept of tithing and replacing Medicare and Medicaid with health savings accounts.