Ben Carson is retreating (slightly) from and declaring victory over his
opposition to a Muslim president. The partial retreat came in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity:
"Absolutely, I stand by the comments. What we have to do , we have to recognize that this is America, and we have a Constitution, and we do not put people at the leadership of our country whose faith might interfere with them carrying out the duties of the Constitution," the retired neurosurgeon explained to Fox News' Sean Hannity. "So if, for instance, you believe in a theocracy — I don't care if you're a Christian and you're running for president and you want to make this into a theocracy — I'm not going to support you. I'm not going to advocate you being the president."
Carson went on to say that he would support someone with a Muslim background who is "willing to reject the tenets [of Islam] and accept the way of life that we have and clearly will swear to place the Constitution above their religion."
If the "if you believe in a theocracy" test was applied to American lawmakers across the board and used to kick theocrats out of office, there would be an awful lot of vacancies in state legislatures across the country, and at least a few in Congress—and I'm not talking about Keith Ellison and Andre Carson. But Ben Carson is following the standard far-right definition of theocracy here, which means things he disagrees with but not things he agrees with.
As for Carson's stipulation that he would support a Muslim candidate who would "clearly will swear to place the Constitution above their religion," 1) wow, he sounds like everyone who opposed electing John F. Kennedy because he was a Catholic and 2) isn't he basically saying he'd require that a Muslim presidential candidate be willing to swear the presidential oath of office? As in, the exact same oath that every president of any religious persuasion swears to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States"? Although Carson has left himself a giant loophole there with his demand that his hypothetical candidate "accept the way of life that we have." "Way of life" is a big f'ing category and one that can be defined as broadly or as narrowly as Carson finds useful at any given moment. But speaking of useful:
Carson's campaign reported strong fundraising and more than 100,000 new Facebook friends in the 24 hours after he told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation."
His campaign manager Barry Bennett told The Associated Press on Monday: "While the left wing is huffing and puffing over it, Republican primary voters are with us at least 80-20."
Boy, that's something to be proud of. Also, while they may be a lot more hesitant to say it out loud, how many of those Republican primary voters who don't want a Muslim president also secretly have big hesitations about a black president, even a Republican?