BuzzFeed Asks Whether Ben Carson’s Political Ambitions Could Ruin His Legacy

BuzzFeed News Reporter Joel Anderson has considered the impact Dr. Ben Carson’s presidential run might have on his legacy. The world renowned neurosurgeon has taken steps toward a run at the White House, and Anderson wonders whether the latest episode in Carson’s exceptional biography will ruin the unblemished view of Carson as “folk hero” (a title assigned by the New York Times in 1993) earned in one of the most difficult and prestigious occupations in America.

Carson’s autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” in particular, has helped to reinforce his legend as a success story for black Americans.

But he’s now risking this previously unassailable legacy in national politics, where reputations are broken as often as made. He’s making a series of sharp-edged statements that undermine his previously universal appeal, particularly in communities he once sought to set an example for. He has traded one kind of national stature for another one, hotter but also faster burning.

Anderson continues, “[Carson’s] former colleagues—to a person—bemoan his loss to the field of neurosurgery.” The article contrasts Ben Carson the soft-spoken medical professional with Ben Carson the outspoken politico. Anderson addresses Carson’s Seventh-day Adventist faith (“In Carson’s home in Maryland, there is a portrait of him sitting alongside a beaming, brown-haired Jesus hanging over the stairwell), his successes as a physician, and his audacious speeches in the political arena.

Read “Could Running For President Destroy Ben Carson’s Legacy?“