As the 2016 presidential election gathers momentum, the dangers facing America abound—the Islamic State, terrorism, mushrooming levels of debt and Russia’s continued ability to reduce the United States to a “radioactive crisp.”
In this campaign cycle, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson are adding “political correctness” to the mix, and breaking new ground in how relentlessly they are emphasizing the matter.
“With Ben Carson, fighting political correctness, or the ‘PC police,’ is central to his philosophy,” wrote Linda Feldmann in a Christian Science Monitor article. “In the latest Republican debate, the soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon turned a question on same-sex benefits into an attack on the idea that because he believes marriage should only be between one man and woman, he’s a ‘homophobe.’ This is how the left tries to ‘frighten people and get people to shut up,’ said Dr. Carson. ‘You know, that’s what the PC culture is all about, and it’s destroying this nation.'”
Trump agrees that political correctness is distracting Americans from the issues that really matter.
In an interview on NBC, Trump said, “Being politically correct takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. We don’t have time in this country. Our country is really in trouble.”
In the early 1990s, the term “political correctness” entered the American lexicon when college campuses began adopting speech codes banning racially offensive language. Over the years, conservatives have criticized a culture that has emerged since that time, stifling free speech and debate in the United States.
During the presidential campaign, Carson and Trump have repeatedly made it an issue. Following controversial remarks about Muslims, Carson said the real problem is the nation’s “politically correct culture.”
“Sharia law is completely antithetical to Americanism,” Carson told reporters. “We need to fix America, and we need to get people to actually start listening and being capable of understanding our Constitution.”
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