Fresh off a third-place showing in the presidential straw poll at last weekend's CPAC convention, Dr. Ben Carson says he'd like to see all political labels removed.
"So you didn't know if the person was a Democrat or a Republican, and you had to actually know who they were and what they did," he said Monday on Fox News Channel's "
Your World with Neil Cavuto."
He believes his idea would stop polarization and force people to find actual solutions, but he optimistic of its implementation.
Cavuto noted that those who ranked at the bottom of CPAC's straw poll were those more willing to moderate and reach across the political aisle.
Carson said he's fine with reaching across the aisle, but before doing so, "You have to have a spine. You have to know what you stand for."
The political divide can be overcome, he said.
"We're not stupid people," he told Cavuto, but the public has allowed itself to be manipulated by those who want to stoke fires of division for their own political gain.
"That's why you see the war on women, the war on age, income wars, race wars," he said.
And Carson said he won't get into the mudslinging he sees from other politicians, including the two who finished ahead of him in CPAC's straw poll, Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. The two
disagree on foreign policy over the Ukraine crisis.
"Both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are courageous people. They don't have their finger up in the air looking to see which way the wind is blowing," Carson said.
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