The Three Amigos

Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, And Gov. Mike Huckabee Enter Into The 2016 GOP Primary Contest

This week is a big week for out-of-touch conservatives running for president. Over three days, three different extreme conservatives are announcing their candidacies. Yesterday, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson threw his hat in the ring. Today, former executive Carly Fiorina announced that she will contend for the Republican nomination. And tomorrow, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will give it another try.

The three all share a common goal: taking extreme conservative positions to the Republican mainstream. Here is a breakdown of just a few things you should know about each candidate:

Carly Fiorina

• Fiorina questioned climate science, despite the fact that HP officially supported action against climate change.
• Fiorina supported the House Republican 20-week abortion ban, even though a number of moderate and female Republicans helped kill this year’s bill.
• During her 2010 Senate campaign in California, Fiorina pledged to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, while the law has reduced the uninsured rate to record low levels.

Dr. Ben Carson

• As part of his long history of inflammatory rhetoric, Carson claimed that the ACA was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”
• Carson argued that homosexuality is a choice, citing the fact that men rape other men in prison.
• Carson claimed that the president’s recent immigration executive action was part of a broader effort to increase the number of voters dependent on the government.

Gov. Mike Huckabee

• Huckabee said that he feared that the U.S. was becoming less free than North Korea under President Obama.
• In one of his strangest assertions, Huckabee said that trying to expand contraceptive access was tantamount to believing that women “cannot control their libido.”
• In his time at Fox News, Huckabee could not handle when women swore in the office: “That’s just trashy,” he said.

BOTTOM LINE: The latest crop of GOP presidential candidates offer more evidence of just how far outside the mainstream conservatives are. From policy to rhetoric, Fiorina, Carson and Huckabee are so radically out-of-touch with what Americans believe and support that it is worth questioning whether they deserve our attention. But here’s the thing: from the Affordable Care Act to climate change to women’s reproductive rights, these candidates hold positions that are nearly the same as their more viable competitors in the Republican field. That’s worth paying attention to.

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