Readers React: Donald Trump and Ben Carson: the frontrunners no one wants

To the editor: No one expected that two political outsiders — one loud and obnoxious, the other soft-spoken and self-effacing, neither ready for prime time — would be leading the Republican presidential nominating contest this late in the calendar. (“Common sense tells us Ben Carson isn’t ready to be president,” Opinion, Nov. 24)

The field in this lollapalooza is replete with experienced and accomplished governors and legislators, but voter disgust with politics-as-usual is reflected in the polls.

As an independent who does not vote in primaries, I am observing this slugfest with equal measures of surprise and dismay. Could Republican primary voters give the nomination to a rank outsider? Am I so bound to the political status quo that I am missing an essential moment in American history?

Have we regressed to a time when policy prescriptions are less important than one-line zingers from Donald Trump and softly expressed platitudes from Ben Carson?

Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati

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To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s acknowledgment that Carson isn’t ready for presidential politics because he lacks a basic understanding of world events is really a partisan defense of Carson masquerading as objective criticism. Goldberg’s suggestion that Carson only needed to study more to be a presidential contender generously conceals the reality that Carson’s know-nothingism is a core value, not the accidental result of failure to do his homework.

Now that Goldberg and the GOP establishment are desperately trying to dump Carson and Trump, we should remember when the real voting starts that these men were celebrated by much of their party, and that the eventual nominee, though more polished on the outside, will represent the same simplistic brand of conservatism celebrated during the primary season.

Mark Pyle, Lakeside

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