The Republican congressional candidate for Minnesota’s second district wants a constitutional amendment to allow his home state, or any other state, to be able to leave the union.
In his 2011 book “Power Divided is Power Checked: The Argument for States’ Rights,” Lewis pushes for strong state and local powers that would allow for “any state to peaceably leave the union.”
The book also contains Lewis’ proposed constitutional amendment on the subject: “It is also hereby established that any state whose inhabitants desire through legal means and in accordance with state law to leave this union of the several states shall not be forcibly refrained from doing so by the federal government of these United States.”
In 2011, before his bid for public office, The Daily Caller interviewed Lewis on his views, where he defended what’s been called “extreme federalism.” States and individuals, Lewis insists, should have the right to free association. Abraham Lincoln, who Lewis insists was the first “big government” president because he prevented secession, and tipped the ultimate power balance toward the federal government.
His unorthodox views don’t stop here.
What Lewis calls the “War Between the States” had “more to do with states’ rights” than slavery. While he said that slavery is a “horrific institution,” he questioned the power of the federal government to abolish it and whether a war that cost 600,000 lives was the best method of ending it: “if you don’t want to own a slave, don’t. But don’t tell other people they can’t.”
Lewis is also one of very few Republicans who support the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Although he’s not an Obama supporter by any means, he made clear on an episode of the Bob Davis podcast that “I am in favor of the Iranian Deal. I am.”
Lewis voiced his issue with the United States being the “world policeman,” and said that short of a direct threat from a foreign nation, he disapproves of military intervention.
What’s more — he supports the legalization of heroin and other drugs.
During his time as the radio host of “The Jason Lewis Show” on Minnesota’s Twin Cities KTCN 1130AM station, he suggested the U.S. “rethink the war on drugs.”
The war has been a massive failure, according to Lewis, who said in 2012 on his show that “you don’t legalize marijuana and heroin overnight, but you at least revert it to the states and you take a look at marijuana as a starter and say ‘you know what, this is where young people are.'”
For young people, Lewis insists, drug dealing is a lucrative alternative to learning a trade.
“You simply don’t see gangs shooting one another (and innocent bystanders) over a six-pack of Bud,” he said in a commentary for the Star Tribune. Lewis believes that decriminalization and legalization of these drugs would decrease the continuous violence of the drug war.
According to an internal campaign poll on TwinCities.com, Lewis shows a significant lead in both name recognition and voter preference over his Republican opponents going into the Aug. 9 primary election.
The winner would face Democratic nominee Angie Craig for the open seat of retiring Republican Rep. John Kline.
