The secret to Ben Carson’s success

But sift through the superficial appeal — the quasi celebrity status he earned for his groundbreaking work as an African American doctor, his inspiring rags-to-riches story and the rhetorical dog whistles precision-programmed to attract conservative voters, and the underpinning of Carson’s success — what’s really propelling the first-time candidate’s 2016 bid, reveals itself.

“He doesn’t back down on his patriotism or his Christian faith,” said John Andrews, director of the Centennial Institute think tank affiliated with Colorado Christian University, where Carson addressed a crowd of about 1,500 on Thursday. “He gives people permission to be proud of America again.”

Carson delivered a half hour talk here, followed by a brief question-and-answer session for the mixture of CCU students and local residents who packed the university’s gymnasium the morning after the third televised debate, held on the campus of the University of Colorado just north of Denver. He paced back and forth across the stage, speaking in his characteristic cadence that could be mistaken for a loud whisper.

The public policy discussed was typical and ran the gamut, from governing spending, to national security to jobs and the economy. Carson has even mastered the art of the political one-liner, eliciting laughter with tailor made gems like: “The Ark was built by amateurs; The Titanic was built by professionals.” The reference is clear — Carson is making the case that political and government inexperience is a virtue.

But the themes Carson returned to over and over kept returning to over and over, the subjects that touched the audience, as evidence by their applause or verbal “oohs and aahs,” was his reassurance that believing the United States is an exceptional nation doesn’t make you culturally obtuse, and being a committed religious Christian who opposes government-sanctioned same-sex marriage doesn’t make you a bigot.

“Don’t you find it comical that so many people like to criticize us?” Carson asked the crowd rhetorically, as if to say: We’re not the crazy ones, they are. Carson — who is running first in Iowa, topping front-runner Donald Trump in a recent national poll and second to him in most other public opinion surveys — said he decided to run for president because “I was afraid that we were starting to lose a part of who we were as Americans.”

Carson clearly resonated with this conservative audience, whose support in Colorado’s spring caucus to elect delegates to the Republican nominating convention in Cleveland could prove crucial to his prospects if the primary campaign stays competitive deep into the voting season.

“Let’s be America. Let’s all accept one another,” said Mack Long, 61, from nearby Westminster, who described himself as a “pretty committed” Carson voter. “We have different beliefs, but give us the right to express those beliefs.”

“It’s just, bring back morals and [the practice of] accepting people for who they are and giving equal rights to everyone, and not putting some people’s rights over other people’s rights,” added Sheila Ostdiek, 60, another “pretty committed” Carson voter from Lakewood.

Many socially conservative voters have assumed a siege mentality in the face of shifting cultural and political moors.

The Supreme Court this year declared government sanctioned gay unions a Constitutional right, elevating the issue of religious liberty in the Republican presidential primary campaign. Americans opposed on religious grounds fear that their presumed Constitutional right not to participate in a gay wedding if they own a wedding services business is being trampled. They resent accusations of homophobia. But it’s not just changing national attitudes on social issues that worry these mostly Republican voters.

There’s genuine concern that the social compact between the federal government and the citizenry has been skewed inexorably to the left, such that Washington is growing out of control and sticking its fingers into every aspect of Americans’ lives. The anxiety is magnified by the feeling that they are helpless to do anything about as long as President Obama sits in the Oval Office.

In Carson, they have a champion for the idea of America as they remember it and hope to see it revived. In speeches, Carson lionizes the up-by-your-bootstraps, personal responsibility, story of the American dream long popular with Republican presidential candidates. But what makes Carson so effective is his discussion of the topic as a matter of American tradition and morality, rather than simply the best way to get a job and grow the economy.

Carson doesn’t dispute the GOP dogma that smaller government is better economics. But his point is that it’s the best way to build a better, fairer, unified country. And while he’s at it, Carson lets people know that valuing personal responsibility and a diminished federal government doesn’t make them callous and uncaring — in fact, just the opposite. It’s left many of them feeling understood by a politician for the first time in a long time.

“I’m tired of being run over,” said Leann Roehm, 60, a local Carson campaign volunteer. “He cares about all of us.”