Limbaugh's guest host is latest radio host to compare current policies or proposals to slavery

While discussing potential Republican outreach efforts toward African-Americans during the November 14 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, guest host Jason Lewis stated: "[T]his whole notion of taxing -- taxing America's labor -- you know, I don't know how else you describe what this sordid experience of slavery was when you take away somebody's ability to engage in the marketplace with the fruits of their labor." Lewis later added: "We need to go into the African-American community there on cultural issues. And they should be there on taxes, because they know what it's like to have to work for free. And during the times of slavery, we targeted black folks. Well, now I guess it's OK to target wealthy folks. Either way, you're taking something that doesn't belong to you."

Lewis hosts a weekday radio show on Minnesota's 100.3 KTLK-FM, the same station that broadcasts The Chris Baker Show.

As Media Matters for America documented, on the November 6 broadcast of Clear Channel's The War Room, co-host Jim Quinn compared "slave[s] in the old South" to welfare recipients today, the "difference" being that "[t]he slave[s] had to work for" the benefits Quinn said they received. Quinn defended those comments on the November 7 broadcast of his radio show, saying, "Now, naturally, the point that I was making was that there are two forms of servitude: There's the servitude that you can be forced into, and there's the servitude you can be coerced into, I mean, the horrors of slavery notwithstanding -- naturally, that was my point."

Additionally, on the September 3 broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show, host Lee Rodgers said: "Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. ... Free of the stifling stupidity of liberalism, which disguises slavery as benevolence. That's -- that's the program for the Obama campaign, by the way."

From the November 14 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LEWIS: What was the party in control? During the Jim Crow era, what was the party in control? The Democrats.

CALLER: The Democrats.

LEWIS: Yeah.

CALLER: Nobody knows that, though, Jason. Nobody knows none of that history, particularly down here where I'm at. Nobody knows. They've been lying to them, man, for 40 years.

LEWIS: By the way, it's another great point you bring up. It's also very dangerous to rely on the Supreme Court and unelected judges, because it was the Supreme Court that upheld Plessy versus Ferguson in -- I think it was 1896 -- that said separate but equal is just fine, for 60 years. Well, what was the court made up of? I mean, you're right --

CALLER: Nobody knows that history, Jason. We -- I saw -- somebody was reading it off one of the morning shows or something, what all the Republicans have did as pertaining to that issue. And the Democrats --

LEWIS: I got you.

CALLER: -- ain't got nothing compared to that. So, we're talking --

LEWIS: Well, it might change. [Caller], I gotta go -- I gotta go, buddy. But it might change if former Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, who has announced his candidacy for the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee -- conservative African-American -- becomes the head of the party. I know he's been wanting Republicans to go into the African-American community and saying that. And I would only add that this whole notion of taxing -- taxing America's labor -- you know, I don't know how else you describe what this sordid experience of slavery was when you take away somebody's ability to engage in the marketplace with the fruits of their labor. We fought a great war over that. And you're quite right. We lost 600,000 Americans, many of them white, by the way. This country repaired itself. This country repaired the damage it was done. Those are reparations -- 600,000 lives.

The bottom line, however, is, that we need to go into the African-American community as conservatives. It's a natural constituency. Seventy percent of African-Americans voted to uphold traditional marriage in California, and now they're seeing the intolerance of the militant gay left. We need to go into the African-American community there on cultural issues. And they should be there on taxes, because they know what it's like to have to work for free. And during the times of slavery, we targeted black folks. Well, now I guess it's OK to target wealthy folks. Either way, you're taking something that doesn't belong to you. Thanks for the call and the reminder.