Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) may be a civil rights icon, but Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage thinks he could use a history lesson on civil rights in the United States. The Portland Press Herald reports that LePage slammed Lewis for questioning President-elect Donald Trump’s legitimacy during a regular appearance on a local talk radio show, and he said Lewis needed to show more gratitude to past white presidents who worked to free black people from slavery. “John Lewis ought to look at history,” the governor told the George Hale and Ric Tyler Show on the Bangor-based radio station WVOM. “It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”
“Instead, what we keep seeing on the news throughout the country is Lewis having the audacity to claim that Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United States,” he said. “That’s a particularly shameful and flat-out rude thing to say, especially coming from a person of color, whose ancestors were freed from slavery by the very ancestors of the men he’s trying to put down with his comments. Well, you know something? This is a blatant display of a lack of gratitude the likes of which I haven’t witnessed in a long time. I mean, I’ve seen some ungrateful people in my day, but to see a black person who takes pride in having disrupted public peace in his youth and then also insults the man who won the presidential election is a new definition of the term, at least in my book.”
“I’ll tell you what, though – if he’s having such a hard time admitting that he owes his freedom to the very race of the man whom he’s calling unfit to serve as president – if he’s openly refusing to thank Republicans for freeing his ancestors from the shackles – well, we can always revoke that decision,” LePage warned. “To tell you the truth, I actually think there’s a lot to be gained from that. The number one benefit I’m seeing right off the bat is the cheap labor we could use to revive the fallen U.S. economy. Not only would we steal back all of our jobs from the Chinese; we’d also give them a taste of their own medicine. On the other hand, while we’re on the subject of the economy – I hear GMO cotton is in high demand again. And everybody knows black people’s DNA is naturally wired to make them the best cotton pickers in the world.”
“Plus, we’ll stop white girls from getting impregnated by black drug dealers, which, as you may recall, is a particularly vexing issue I’ve tackled on a previous occasion. Indeed, there are many benefits to be had from reestablishing slavery. And I have a feeling John Lewis would be a particularly sought after commodity. As a matter of fact, I happen to have a special position for him in mind already. I know a number of ex-Georgia state troopers that would love to get their hands on an educated, well-mannered African American slave. Solely for reminiscing purposes, of course,” LePage concluded.
