And he was a hateful old bastard:
And long after die-hard segregationists like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond began courting black voters, Helms fueled white fears by opposing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whistling “Dixie” while standing next to Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, and supporting apartheid in South Africa.
Good riddence.
Megabeth
I will always remember standing in a voting booth in North Carolina when I was about 10 years old. My mother pointed to Helms’s name and said, “Never ever vote for this man.” Best advice she ever game me.
Peej
Good riddance, indeed. The evil corner of my heart is wishes it had been something other than natural causes, but that’s par for the course for evil bastards, it seems: they live long lives and go out easily, unfortunately.
J. Tyler Ballance
At the end of one’s life, the battles are over, who was right, or wrong will be left for history to decide.
There is a reason why civilized people do not speak ill of the dead. Even with the passing of a political adversary, we must acknowledge that our opponent has passed on and is continuing a journey that we will all someday make.
Martin Luther king is dead. Now Jesse Helms is dead. Many of us who remain, agree that nothing King did warranted a national holiday in his name; that there were other Blacks who did more for the common good than King.
However, perhaps with the passing of both of these old adversaries, those of us who remain bound to the earth for a while longer, can turn our attention to restoring our Constitution-based Republic and ensuring that we elect leaders who will work tirelessly to ENHANCE our Liberty.
MB
You know, Tyler, I look at a lot of your comments through the filter of assuming that you’re a generally smart gentleman, but of another time. So I pretty much refrain from taking a contrary view. In this case, though, I’m going to have to call you out here as completely full of shit.
Jesse Helms was a mean, hateful, miserable son of a bitch who was so goddamn useless he couldn’t even bring back enough money to keep North Carolina’s highways in decent repair. He was a vampire who preyed on America’s better side, making fools of people like you, who wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. If there’s a hell, he’s burning in it.
You’d do well to remind yourself that there is such thing as evil, and be sure to not take the side of it while you’re desperately spinning your myths.
Jimbo
Helms was pure evil. He dedicated his energies towards preserving bigotry and blocking advancements in civil rights. He opposed gay rights, rights for women, reproductive rights… He was a horrible and he will not be missed.
Hmmm
I used to think that there was no pure evil in the world. But I could never understand the behavior of some people. Then I read a book called “people of the Lie” by a rabbi whose name escapes me right now. I now believe evil really does exist.
Thank goodness the world lost one of those evil people today,
J. Tyler Ballance
I am of this time, MB. In this century, we needn’t flog the dead bodies of political opponents. I am hopeful that the citizens of our time will recognize that we may be adversaries on some issues, but we are not enemies, and even adversaries can be allies on common ground issues.
If we examine history, of other countries as well as our own, we often see rhetoric used, over time, that paints what was originally mere political opponents, to rhetoric that degenerates into labeling opponents as inhuman, evil, Satanic or in the case of the Reich, their opponents were, vermin.
When the opponent is dehumanized it is a relatively common next step into some form of genocide. Is that where you are headed with your vitriol?
I was not a big fan of Helms, and I do not share the myth that King ever had anyone’s interest in mind (other than his own).
Both of these political adversaries are now passed.
It is up to those who remain here to either continue to slog along, fighting old political battles, or as I have advocated here and elsewhere, to elect to seek a new path.
The path that I advocate is that we step forward into the Twenty-First century and build a society based on MERIT, where one’s gene pool of origin or one’s gender is no longer the basis for selection or advancement.
Honor the dead. Learn from past mistakes. Build a better future.
Peej
Oh, geez, Godwin’s Law?!
MB
Yes, Godwin already. But I’ll take Tyler’s last line anyway. Tyler, you can’t do the first and achieve the second two, in Helms case. The entire meaning of his life was wrapped around being a hateful and spiteful man. That’s not demonizing the dead. That’s simply describing what he was. And if you refuse to describe someone as he was, you’ll never learn from his mistakes or build a better future.
tom
While I try to refrain from personally criticizing the dead & believe their is some good in everyone (even if completely misguided), I do not know of one thing positive Helms did for this world (other than to be such a jerk that some conservatives had to distance themselves from him). But to compare him with MLK? Cannot you not recognize the difference between love & hate, Tyler?
I find it isn’t much use arguing with a libertarian type that promotes a meritocracy. Someday, Tyler or someone he loves will suffer from a mental or physical disability & he may take the opportunity to grow up, break from his delusions and see the value of a system that places a value on all human beings (or not).
J. Tyler Ballance
Mike Godwin proved that one could make up a completely baseless “law” and by repeating the inanity as frequently as possible on the old USENET groups, some fools would actually believe it really was a law of some sort.
Godwin’s agenda was to censor any reference to the Reich era, even if such a reference was illustrative to a particular point.
For those not familiar with the silliness sometimes known as “Godwins law” Mike Godwin asserted that anyone who referenced the Reich era to make a point was trying to stifle discussion and should therefore lose whatever debate that was in progress when the reference was made. Of course his “law” is really designed to discourage people from talking about any useful lessons learned from the Reich era, not to foster more open debate.
If we are to seek the truth, then there should never be thoughts, ideas or historic references deemed as out-of-bounds.
Tom, your final paragraph where you wish that I, or one of my family suffers some disability makes no sense. My previous point was, I think clearly stated, that people should not be categorized based on gene pool or gender and that merit should be the basis of hiring and promotion. This position values those of all abilities, so it is illogical for a conclusion to be drawn that there would be no empathy for the disabled or impaired.
As for Senator Helms, the question was raised if he ever did any “good” in his life. As I said before, I was never a big fan, but the fact that Senator Jesse Helms served for thirty years in the United States Senate demonstrates that the citizens of North Carolina were convinced that he was doing some good as their Senator.
A site that has some information about Senator Helms’ achievements is:
http://www.jessehelmscenter.org
If Helms and MLK could talk to us from the other side, I bet that they would affirm that they were political adversaries, but not enemies, and that they still found areas of common ground upon which to work for the common good of all of our citizens.
Peej
Poor, poor horse.