Minnesota GOP Congressional Nominee Has Fun, Creative Views On Women, Slavery, Everything

He seems nice

Minnesota Republicans chose a real winner in their primary for Minnesota's Second District: a former talk-show host, Jason Lewis, who among other achievements founded a social network for Ayn Rand fans, argued that the federal government probably couldn't legally outlaw slavery, thinks young women are too dumb to vote, and worries white Americans are on the road to extinction because they aren't making enough babies. The district tends to vote Democratic, so Democrats who dream of taking back the House of Representatives are no doubt trying to suppress their grins.

Let's just review some of Lewis's greatest hits, shall we?

On slavery and the civil war, Lewis claimed in his 2011 book,  Power Divided Is Power Checked: The Argument for States' Rights,  that the federal government probably didn't have the power to outlaw slavery, and of course that the Civil War was a fight over states' right to secede, not really about slavery. Hey, Dinesh D'Souza, looks like we found a Republican who's OK with slavery! As long as it's implemented by the states, not the federal government, at least. When he was asked in a 2011 Daily Caller interview if the Civil War had been worth fighting, he talked around the question a bit and finally decided it was "kinda hard to say."

Then after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Lewis released an updated version of the audio version of his book, to keep up with new developments, in which he compared marriage equality to slavery, because Logic:

In fact, if you really want to be quite frank about it, how does somebody else owning a slave affect me? It doesn’t. If I don’t think it is right, I won’t own one, and people always say ‘well if you don’t want to marry somebody of the same sex, you don’t have to, but why tell somebody else they can’t. Uh, you know if you don’t want to own a slave, don’t. But don’t tell other people they can’t.

Sadly, that quote is occasionally truncated by evil liberals to leave out the comparison to gay marriage, to make it sound like Lewis is such a libertarian that he'd allow slavery -- such was the version we first encountered in fact. But no, he's not a pro-slavery monster. He's more of an anti-gay monster who makes really stupid, illogical analogies. If Mr. Lewis needs help understanding the difference between allowing two people who love each other to marry and one person owning another human being as property, we'd be happy to explain in detail. Or maybe Angie Craig, his very happily lesbian-married Democratic opponent, could explain that to him in a debate.

Lewis just isn't into the idea of the federal government deciding who has rights and who doesn't; as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune explains,

Lewis later said "social decisions" should be left "to the collective wisdom of the states and the people. Because the courts are not smart enough to know what the answer is."

In 2009, while filling in for Rush Limbaugh, Lewis explained that the problem after Hurricane Katrina wasn't the bungled federal response. No, not at all! Most REAL Americans "think the mistake was a bunch of whiners down there. They don't think we did too little in Katrina, they think people did not help themselves!"

</center>He seems nice. <p>Then there are his enlightened thoughts on women! Although his radio show has for some reason removed a lot of his older broadcasts, the Star-Tribune <a href="http: //www.startribune.com/lewis-facing-strong-criticism-for-past-comments-about-women/368885181/" target="_blank">thoughtfully transcribed</a> his thoughts from a 2012 broadcast, in which he was shocked, shocked, that women thought their insurance should cover slut supplies: </p><p/><blockquote>I never thought in my lifetime where’d you have so many single, or I should say, yeah single women who would vote on the issue of somebody else buying their diaphragm. This is a country in crisis. Those women are ignorant in, I mean, the most generic way. I don’t mean that to be a pejorative. They are simply ignorant of the important issues in life. Somebody’s got to educate them. [...] <p>[I]s that really the most important thing to a 25-year old unmarried woman -- uh getting me to pay for her pills? Seriously?! Is that what we’ve been reduced to? You can be bought off for that? </p><p>You’ve got a vast majority of young single women who couldn’t explain to you what GDP means. You know what they care about? They care about abortion. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about 'The View.' They are non-thinking.</p></blockquote> <p>Not surprisingly, when the old comments came up during the campaign, Lewis attacked the media for expecting him to be politically correct. Well by god, he wasn't going to stand for that! </p><p/><blockquote>Liberal reporters and typical politicians may not like the bluntness of the way I’ve framed some issues in my career as a voice in the conservative movement. As the father of two young daughters, I’m not going to back away from the fight now, especially after two disastrous terms of failed leadership under President Obama. I expressed in 2012 that I opposed taxpayer funding for abortion and contraceptives, and my position hasn’t changed.</blockquote> <p>See? He may say awful stuff, but really he's just a mainstream Republican in his views. That should be reassuring to women everywhere! </p><p>Also in 2012, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/gop-candidate-jason-lewis-questions-wisdom-civil-war" target="_blank">Lewis had some thoughts</a> on demographics. That time around, </p><p/><blockquote>[Lewis] said the "white population" of the United States was <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mbrodkorb/jason-lewis-on-white-population-committing-cultural-suicide-november-9-2012" target="_blank">"committing cultural suicide"</a> by not having more kids. "Other communities are having three, four, five, six kids -- gee, guess what happens after a while, folks?"</blockquote> <p>Oh, we know! You get a lot bigger selection of restaurants, even in medium-sized cities like Boise Goddamned Idaho, where you can finally go to an Ethiopian restaurant, YUM! Also, your nation becomes an ever more delightful tapestry of cultures and backgrounds, while still remaining true to its constitutional traditions of representative democracy, equality under the law and due process. Clearly, Lewis must have had that in mind? </p><p>Democratic nominee Angie Craig ran unopposed in her primary, and <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/controversial-former-talk-radio-host-wins-gop-nod-minnesota-battleground" target="_blank">goes into the general election</a> with a district that leans blue, as well as a campaign fund totaling $1.7 million. Lewis's campaign is sure the money will start rolling in, although Lewis's last financial report before the primary showed him with only $107,000 on hand. Now that the primary is over and the candidates are set, things should be just fine, said campaign spokesman Michael Osskopp, not at all sounding like he was whistling past a graveyard: "Most major donors sit things out until the primary...We expect, beginning Wednesday, we won’t have any trouble raising money." </p><p>Angie Craig is a first-time candidate who's worked in management at St. Jude Medical in Minneapolis, and casually mentions at the end of her <a href="http://www.angiecraig.com/meet-angie" target="_blank">"Meet Angie" page,</a> "My wife and I have four teenage sons -- two of them are heading off to college this fall and a third follows next year." That's still new enough to Yr Wonkette for us to find it more than just a little bit delightful! </p><p><a href="https://wonkette.substack.com/p/minnesota-gop-congressional-nominee-has-fun-creative-views-on-women-slavery-everything/angie-craig" rel="attachment wp-att-605412"><img id="beb32" data-rm-shortcode-id="2146b1b098d0a076d0aa30a0ce4ad327" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY3Mjk4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY5MDM0NDI1MH0.dOQg_c8-OBVLReoRf8L13NiierzdnPkVz1SN4hOqRQM/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> </p><p>After Tuesday's primary, Craig's campaign noted in a statement that while she'd spent two decades as a job creator, "Jason Lewis talked at people." As for what he said, the statement went on, </p><p/><blockquote>What’s disturbing about Jason’s time on the air isn’t just the shock value of his soundbites--it’s the strength of conviction he shows in standing by his opinions. From calling young women ‘non-thinking,’ to suggesting victims of natural disasters are a bunch of ‘whiners,’ to his twisted logic on slavery, it’s no surprise that he wants to join the group of extremists in the Freedom Caucus who shut down the government. Jason’s candidacy represents a fundamental contradiction of Minnesota values.”</blockquote> <p>We may be part golden retriever: we just met her and we love her. </p><p>The <a href="http://cookpolitical.com/story/9828?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Comped+Subscribers&utm_campaign=Alert%3A+Primary+Results+Move+MN-02+from+Toss+Up+to+Lean+Democratic" target="_blank">Cook Political Report</a> took a look at Lewis's primary victory and Craig's fundraising success, and switched the district's status from "Toss up" to "Lean Democratic." If you'd like to help give Angie Craig a little nudge toward "likely Democratic," her campaign donation page is <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/angiecraig" target="_blank">right here. </a> </p><p>[<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/gop-candidate-jason-lewis-questions-wisdom-civil-war" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a> / <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/controversial-former-talk-radio-host-wins-gop-nod-minnesota-battleground" target="_blank">The Hill</a> / <a href="http://www.startribune.com/lewis-book-offers-provocative-analysis-on-slavery-and-civil-rights/369306761/" target="_blank">Star-Tribune</a> / <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2009/02/02/limbaugh-fill-in-jason-lewis-real-americans-thi/147178" target="_blank">Media Matters</a> / <a href="http://www.startribune.com/lewis-facing-strong-criticism-for-past-comments-about-women/368885181/" target="_blank">Star-Tribune</a> / A<a href="http://www.angiecraig.com/" target="_blank">ngie Craig for Congress</a>]</p>