Meet Candy Carson: The Anti-Michelle Obama
After nearly eight
years of the East Wing’s politics of mope and complain, it’s refreshing
to see a presidential candidate’s spouse who is always smiling.Candy Carson — wife of GOP 2016 hopeful Dr. Ben Carson, mother of
three sons, and grandmother of two — is the anti-Michelle Obama. She’s a
quiet but confident ray of sunshine: down-to-earth, devoutly Christian
and proudly patriotic.
While Mrs. Obama first gained notoriety carping about racism and
trashing America, Mrs. Carson helped kick off her husband’s 2016 bid by
playing the violin with a gospel choir as they performed a joyful,
rousing rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
I met the couple, who recently celebrated their 40th wedding
anniversary, a few weeks ago during a campaign stop in Colorado Springs.
Dr. Carson’s dazzling career as a Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon
is well known. But Mrs. Carson’s own personal story is remarkable as a
standalone exemplar of the American Dream achieved.
The daughter of a teacher and a factory worker, Candy Carson grew up
poor in inner-city Detroit with four siblings. She earned a scholarship
to attend Yale University, where she met her future husband and fellow
Detroit native. Mrs. Carson triple-majored in music, psychology and
pre-med. She played violin for the Yale Symphony and Bach Society. Just
as her church-organist mother insisted that all her children learn to
play instruments, Mrs. Carson formed a string quartet (two violins,
cello and viola) with her own three sons dubbed the “Carson Four.”
Feminists loved Mrs. Obama’s relentless jokes openly denigrating her
spouse’s shortcomings as a husband and father on the campaign trail.
Victory did not improve her dour disposition. Even after moving into the
White House and enjoying multiple taxpayer-financed vacations around
the world, President Obama’s bitter half bizarrely lamented her plight
as a “busy single mother.”
So. Put. Upon.
By contrast, Mrs. Carson revels in her role as family matriarch and
life partner in her husband’s endeavors. “The calling of a neurosurgeon
isn’t easy to live out, and Ben has been required to go above and beyond
the call of duty many times,” she writes in her upcoming memoir, “A
Doctor in the House.” “The life of a neurosurgeon’s wife isn’t much
easier. But it’s all been worth it. Together, we’ve been through
poverty, tragedy, wealth, and joy, and I’ve come to love Ben more as
each year has passed.”
Mrs. Obama regularly grumbles about juggling her various roles.
“Finding balance has been the struggle of my life and my marriage, in
being a woman, being a professional, being a mother,” she kvetched to
Ladies Home Journal. “What women have the power to do, through our own
experiences, is to push that balance out into the culture. If people are
happier, and they’re more engaged, and they have jobs they can value
that allow them to respect and value their homes, that makes the home
life stronger.”
Struggle this, struggle that. Time for another Aspen ski vacation or carbon footprint-enlarging jaunt to Milan!
Elitist liberal working mothers expend an astounding amount of energy
letting everyone know how hard they toil, how much “sacrifice” they’ve
made, and how unhappy they are if they’re not working outside the home
earning “respect” from other elitist liberal working mothers.
Meanwhile, moms like Candy Carson operate in a no-whine zone. It is a
blessing to have so many opportunities and choices. And there’s no time
to waste.
In addition to raising the Carson children, co-founding the Carson
Scholars Fund charity (which has awarded nearly 7,000 scholarships
across the country to academically gifted students of all backgrounds
who give back to their communities), and serving as sounding board and
co-author of three of the Carsons’ New York Times bestsellers, Mrs.
Carson worked in trust administration, insurance and real estate. She
also found time to earn a masters degree in business from Johns Hopkins
and conduct the University of Maryland Medical Center Chamber Players.
Like the Obamas, the Carsons have experienced their share of racial
discrimination and prejudice. But it does not define them. Neither have
they let their phenomenal success get to their heads. “Did I ever
imagine I would live in a place like this?” Mrs. Carson reflected in an
interview at her elegant home with Baltimore Magazine. “Of course not.
Growing up poor, you try to be a good steward of the money you have.”
What a refreshing change from the arrogant profligacy that has marked
the past two presidential terms in Washington. The most common refrain
you’ll hear from people who meet the couple is how humble and gracious
they are. They’ve made sure to instill the values of thrift, personal
responsibility and private philanthropy in their children. Both Carsons
emphasized in our visit their profound concern for their grandchildren’s
future, the abandonment of constitutional principles, and the fiscal
cliff that young generations of Americans now face.
Attitude is everything. The narcissism and nihilism of the Beltway
stand in stark contrast to the faith of the Carsons in God, their
country and each other. However their political adventure turns out,
they are “ready to follow … whatever He has in store for us next,” Mrs.
Carson writes.
Keep smiling, work hard, be grateful, and play on. This is what makes America great.COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM
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