Ben Carson: The GOP's Latest Black Attack Dog

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Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes at the Huffington Post that the famed neurosurgeon may be "the worst thing that happened to us since he opened his mouth," hurling a steady stream of invectives at women, blacks, Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Dr. Ben Carson's shoot from the lip, crackpot quips, digs, and insults at women, blacks, Democrats, and especially President Obama are fast becoming the stuff of legend. This time he almost outdid his past inane cracks with the zinger that the Affordable Care Act is the worst thing since slavery. Carson has parlayed his zany potshots into a plum spot as a Fox News Network commentator. This is the sorry case of a man who at one time had the respect of many for his moving, inspiring story of overcoming hardships to become a highly respected medical professional and who now has prostituted himself to grab a quick headline from a soundbite-driven, titillation media that hungrily eats up anything that someone like a Carson dishes out.

But it's also the case of a man such as Carson and his ilk that serve a calculating purpose. They get attention for the GOP. While they are zany, they also touch a deep, dark, and throbbing pulse among legions of ultra-conservatives who think that Obama and many Democrats are communists, gays are immoral, and that the health care reform law is exactly what Carson likened it to "slavery," meaning the tyrannical intrusion by big government into their lives. Carson actually went even further than the slavery dig and likened the health care law to the old communist dictatorship in the Soviet Union run by Lenin …

Carson fits neatly into this script. He's an African American with name identification and some admiration among blacks, though that's dwindling fast. We can be sure then that this won't be the last crackpot quip that we'll hear from Carson. Sadly, he'll continue to be the worst thing that happened to us since he opened his mouth.

Read Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s entire piece at the Huffington Post.

The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.

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