While the Republican nominee for president Donald Trump this week joked about the possible assassination of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, it won’t surprise anyone that corners of the Republican Party also hold some interesting views. Jason Lewis from the state of Minnesota, announced this week that he is running for Congress (but is yet to win the Republican nomination for the role). The Star Tribune in Minnesota reports that Lewis seems to think there is nothing wrong with slavery:
“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.”
Lewis is in a field of six to try and win the Republican nomination to run in November. We doubt he’ll get there.
Is it possible you’ve missed the point here? It might just be that he is opposed to same-sex marriage and is dealing with the “well, other people want it and it doesn’t affect you so why not let it alone?” argument by suggesting the same argument could also rationalise slavery.
Disclaimer: I am not endorsing one position or another here. I’m just sayin’.
+1. Just what I was about to say.