During the CNN GOP Town Hall on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio said and did some pretty awkward things. However, one of the weirdest utterances made by one of President Barack Obama’s potential successors came from Carson, and it had everything to do with Stephen Colbert’s former archenemy and Leonardo DiCaprio’s closest costar on The Revenant.
A member of the audience asked Carson how he reconciled his “traditional Christian values” with “current GOP stances on social issues, such as welfare and subsidies for the poor.” His response? To reminisce about the golden oldies, of a time long before former presidents Woodrow Wilson and Lyndon B. Johnson instituted policies that made people care for the poor “the government’s job.”
“It’s not the government’s job… In the old days of America, when communities were separated by hundreds of miles, why were they able to thrive? Because if it was harvest time and the farmer was up in the tree picking apples and fell down and broke his leg, everybody pitched in and harvested his crops for him. If somebody got killed by a bear, everybody took care of their family.”
The stance Carson took is one often used by Republican politicians who promote their Christian values for the evangelical vote while campaign against social welfare programs, or what they deem excessive government spending. Such waste drains more money than is necessary from taxpayers’ pockets, they argue, so programs like subsidies for the socioeconomic less fortunate should be cancelled.
“Okay, that’s great and all,” you’re probably thinking. “But what about the goddamn bear attacks!?” Never fear, for Twitter was wondering the same thing.
Did @RealBenCarson call out Leo on the whole "bear" thing? https://t.co/cAuhQYrBUp
— IJR (@TheIJR) February 18, 2016
Oh man, Ben Carson hypothetically had a guy get killed by a bear? voluntarily?
— dontforgetmac (@dontforgetmac) February 18, 2016
BEN CARSON: If a bear attacks you today, Obamacare will help you. In the old days, you'd go to a neighbor's house & bleed out #GOPTownHall
— InternetActionForce (@InternetAction) February 18, 2016
Ben Carson polling strongly with right-to-bear-imaginary-knives advocates.
— Barry Crimmins (@crimmins) February 18, 2016
If you are attacked by a bear, #BenCarson will pick your apples for you. Election over. #GOPTownHall
— Zack Guzmán (@zGuz) February 18, 2016
https://twitter.com/StandUpDave/status/700139716100952064
https://twitter.com/AvBronstein/status/700132681187794944
VILLAGER: Dr. Carson! Esau fell from the Apple tree and got killed by a bear!
BEN CARSON: We have to pitch in. I got just the Bible verse.— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) February 18, 2016
(Via Talking Points Memo)