When looking at the two Republican front runners—Donald Trump and Ben Carson—there are a great number of differences between them that cause people, who are thinking of voting Republican, to lean one way or the other. While some may point out contrasting backgrounds—New York City and Detroit—the ways in which they present themselves, or even their race, I think the most jarring difference between these two presidential candidates is the way they view the country.
We have heard Trump acknowledge time and again, “I’m a business man.” The more I hear him speak the more I am convinced that he sees our country as a business. While Trump says he stands very much with creating more jobs for the American people, these jobs come at a cost. And who takes the cost? Clearly not Trump himself.
For example, in an interview with Fox News, Sunday, Trump was asked about eminent domain—the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation, according to Google. This was in relation to his wanting a woman to move so that he could use where her house was to build a parking lot for his hotel. The reason he gave for stating that he would have liked her place to have been an eminent domain so that he could take it was that his hotel of “two thousand rooms would have provided two thousand jobs.”
What makes Trump so scary is the fact that he cloaks his disregard for the individual, common person and his hunger for economic gain under the good will of creating jobs. Furthermore, in the same interview he displays his desire for immediate gratification—in the form of money—when he calls Environmental Protect “a disgrace” because “every week they come out with new regulations” which affect his economic growth. He ended by saying that “we can leave a little bit [of the environment] but we can’t destroy businesses.” Having little concern for long term effects, Trump sees our country as a business to be run with money to be made as Commander-in-Chief.
Ben Carson, on the other hand, has used the resources in wealth he has achieved to better the good of others. As a neurosurgeon, his job—while making significant amounts of money—has been helping hurting people and saving lives. While his rags to riches story is important and contrasts heavily with Trump, being a white man born into wealthy privilege, what Carson did with his fortune is more important. By setting up the Carson Scholarship Fund back in 1994 to “reward young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments” (bencarson.com) 7,500 students have been awarded scholarships and given a chance at higher education.
But for Ben Carson, the importance of education goes beyond the classroom. In the first Republican Debate this year, Carson stated that Hillary Clinton “counts on the fact that people are uninformed…while I just happen to believe that people are not stupid and the way I will come at it is to educate people.” His people-oriented way of approaching the country contrasts heavily with his Republican rival. How will this humanist approach play out differently than one of economic interest when our country is faced with issues of the future?
With all that is happening in the world, many are worried that chaos and war are about to ensue. What will it be like having a president who sees business in war? What will it be like having a president who sees people in war? If any great issue must be dealt with in the next four years, it will matter most how our president sees the country of the United States of America, not their charisma or personal background.
