The Carson Campaign: An Autopsy

Today, Ben Carson decided to endorse Donald Trump. From the outside, this makes no sense at all.

Carson ran as a man of integrity and a man of ideas. As a result, he was likened to a child molester by Trump. He responded that we should pray for Trump. As the campaign wound on, Trump cozied up to him, remaining with him on stage.

Carson was once polling 30%+ and so Trump had to take him down. Later, when Carson was in the single digits, Trump used him to foil the rise of Cruz (as in Iowa). It was here that his campaign began to fall apart.

What man gloms on to a lie, accepts an apology, and then continue to carry around the hurt, on a national stage? There’s something extremely fragile in Carson’s psyche, or he is being dishonest. I suspect that pride is at work here.

This lie was used by Carson (now in the single digits in the contests) and Trump and Rubio to hammer Cruz. Then, Carson suspends his campaign. He doesn’t quit. He says people want him to stay in, which may have been true, but for what purpose? When you haven’t won a single state and you have no organization and not enough money, why do this?

The answer: to buy time for Trump. Now, the man of ideas, and the man of supposedly sincere faith endorses Trump, the vile charlatan. Again, this makes no sense from the outside. Then again, neither does Palin endorsing Trump and going to war with Steve King and Cruz, both whom she helped elect.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that fame, wealth, and promises of power can corrupt the weak. I can see no other reason for this duplicity.

From a strategy perspective, Trump used Carson, and to a lesser degree, Kasich and Rubio, to fracture Cruz’s support. Carson was useful to him. Also, both men are former Democrats, Carson only registering as a Republican this electoral cycle. Newly-minted people still act a lot like their old ways, especially if they’re not surrounded with good people. Carson’s campaign wasn’t surrounded by good people.

What pains me the most is that this decision alienates a lot of his supporters. A lot of them wanted an outsider candidate to bring some integrity back to politics. To have such a man endorse Trump is an incredible letdown.

To the pundit class, this will look like the man with the toys gets everything he wants – money buys everything, apparently, even the people who are ideologically and spiritually opposed to your message. However, this misses the point. Only those who can be controlled by wealth, fame, or power, can be bought by them. We know now that Palin and Carson can be bought. We also know that Cruz cannot, or at least that his price is higher than what Trump can provide.

So as one man disappoints us, that is no reason to give up, to go home, or to stop fighting. All this does is reveal that Carson was insincere. The true test of faith is endurance, and God will not tolerate people making idols out of men. I have not and will not make an idol out of my choice for president. Thus, I full-throatedly support Cruz for president, because I see that he embodies what is important to me. If he were to fail, what I know to be true would not change. To be discouraged and disheartened is what allows opponents to triumph. I will not be cowed so easily.

Carson is not who he said he was.

Cruz for president.