Friday, July 04, 2008

Jesse Helms' sense of timing

Jesse Helms' sense of timing was always keen. From his days as an acerbic TV commentator on WRAL's Channel 5, his decision to change parties and become a Republican in 1970, his decision to run for and to win a U.S. Senate seat for the North Carolina GOP for the first time in the 20th century and his key role in engineering a victory for Ronald Reagan in the 1976 N.C. presidential primary -- a from-behind victory that gave Reagan credibility and momentum to successfully compete for and win the presidency four years later -- Helms was a master of political timing. So Helm's death at age 86 early on the morning of July 4th, the most patriotic national holiday, was a fitting exit for a man who -- love him or hate him -- recognized the moment and seized it often enough to transform state and national politics.
History professor Bill Link recognized this is his recent comprehensive biography of Jesse Helms. One of Link's theses is that Helms has an important place in American politics and that regardless of what you thought about him, there's not getting around how he changed the political world, made it possible for the conservative revolution to come to widespread power in ways that such luminaries of the far right as Barry Goldwater never were able to accomplish, and wound up his career actually getting a few key things done in Congress that surprised his detractors and possibly even dismayed some of his oldest conservative allies.
Here's a link to Bill Link's fine book, "Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism."

17 comments:

mike said...

too bad you decided to omit the obvious ... that on this Independence Day, a tyrant has died.

Yet another old white man who could have truly changed our world for the better chose instead to use his power to challenge, fight, and withhold basic civil rights from those he feared and from whom he differed: blacks, women, and other minorities.

The world is a better today because Jesse Helms is dead.

Anonymous said...

He was just like Al Sharpton "to use his power to challenge, fight, and withhold basic civil rights from those he feared and from whom he differed".
And the same will be said when Al goes to the great beyond.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness he is dead, though about 30 years too late. The damage he inflicted on North Carolina and his neglect of our interests in his Senate career will be his everlasting shameful legacy.

Pierre Le Cochon said...

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th of July, so now has another great American. You always knew where Jesse Helms stood on an issue. The same can't be said for so many politicians today.

Anonymous said...

Again and again I hear people say admiringly that "you always knew where Jesse stood." But Jesse was a race-baiting, hate-mongering, Tar Heel-dividing !@#$hook. So what's to admire about that?

Anonymous said...

Jesse was the real deal. Too bad we don't have more like him. He is one who would not have been afraid to stand up to a real racist like Obama. Most tip toe around Obama because they don't want to be viewed as attacking a black man. Jesse would have called him the racist phoney he really is and wouldnt have cared a bit what the rest of you hatemongers thought.

I always find it amusing that people who want to attack a white man for being a racist are fine and dandy with a black man being a racist.

Anonymous said...

Jesse Helms vicious hatred and fear of homosexuals played a huge role in making the lives of our gay family and friends a living hell. Dying young men were abandoned by their families and churches. He represents the dark side of the "religious" south. The air is a little cleaner today!

Anonymous said...

"A real racist like Obama?" Please--Jesse Helms defined exactly what "racism" is in this country. People wonder why Al Sharpton is still around, and it's simple--someone has to help keep an eye on an establishment that is less than half a century removed from the systematic and legalized exclusion of blacks in this society.

Obviously, I don't revel in the fact that Jesse Helms is dead. It would've been much sweeter to watch him spin aimlessly while either Harvey Gantt or Jim Hunt was representing North Carolina in the US Senate. But I don't miss the man. I hope he spins a tunnel to China in his grave and doesn't get a bit of peace in Eternity.

Anonymous said...

Helms proved that the real bigot racist hetrophobes were those who opposed him in many ways than one especially with his victories over the perversionist left when he defeated "piss-christ" so called hetrophobe artwork and when he also defeated 1st graders reading about My Two Mommies trying to degrade the instition of marriage between a man and woman only as if we need to even lower ourselves to legitimize such bizzarro perversion.
As far as opposing the MLK holiday he was 100% ligitimate. Why should a womanizing Marxist cronie who cheated by plagerizing on his doctorate be given a holyday in his honor alone when the great presidents had to share a day notwithstanding it cost taxpayers billions and its not like low performing public school kids need another day off to do nothing.

Helms had his pitfalls we know. Most noticeably was his decision in the early 70s to abandon the traditionally conservative Democratic party of the south for the elitist industrialist liberal party of tyrant King Abe who Bush idolizes and emunlated with his premptive attacks on innocent nations so viciously all based on lies and political power centralization.
We know Lincoln was a tyrant who first obliterated the US Constitution with habius corpus and closed 100s of dissenting newspapers in the north while jailing or executing 1000s who opposed him.
We know the Republican Party was born in 1860 by Lincoln out of Marxism and the Manifesto published only 12 yrs earlier in 1848.
Dr. Ron Paul was 100% correct saying the Marxist preemptive Lincoln war was a massive catastrophic mistake and unneeded because slavery ended without wars by all other European nations or their colonies. Only America and GOP Lincoln was sucked into the Marxist preemptive lie of warfare.
Bush made the same miscalculated power hungry mistakes as his hero Lincoln with his zeocons leading the way for him.

In the end Helms proved that the more things change the more things stay the same. Liberals are still liberals and conservatives are still conservatives in America. Change? What change? Things are worse now then they were 40 yrs ago. Integration? Blacks students do much worse now than 40 yrs ago in school work and crime rates are through the roof.
Helms was no dummie. There is nothing new under the sun. Only misguided idiots believe otherwise.
Look at high profile blacks like Rice and Powell.
Rice is "proud of Iraq" and Powell started 2 wars for 2 Bushes.
Look at even Obama change his colors to his lighter side flip flopping on 100% of the issues that got him where he is and in the end may be more conservative than even Bush.

The more things change ...

Thanks Jesse. You were 100% right. Obama will be in the Helms ideology before its over being a good christian family man with nice kids beliving in marrage between a man and woman only and against all drugs plus continue fighting terror. Oh yea, Barack is already is like Jesse.

Anonymous said...

I have heard ABE LINCOLN was a 32 Degree MASON is this true or not?
A Mason told me no that this was a lie about ABE. Funny thing his statue in Washington shows him making a MASON symbol or numbers with his hands. Was Lincoln a MASOn or not?

Anonymous said...

Some People think that JESSE Helms was in the KKK in his earlier days is this true ? It doesnt bother me because the early KKK was not violent and was a religious group when started. Somebiody Please comment yell like tarzan or let me know .

Anonymous said...

Many of our Congressmen and women were in the KKK in the early years and they still may be. The KKK was started in Cincinnati, Ohio is what Ive heard . Many Union soldiers and Southern soldiers that were officers were in it. Thats what I heard anyway. Can someone give us history lesson.

Anonymous said...

Concerning Jesse Helms

To quote Dylan:

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead

Travelingman Rick said...

Jessie Helms was not a patriot, he was a racist homophobe. The only good thing about his death is that I had a reason to be thankful that one more racist bigot is no longer around to do harm to this country.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance to that bigoted, racist, KKK loving, piece of crap. There is a special place in hell for him and people like him. I hope one of his grandkid's grandkids will marry an African American, Latino, or some other minority..........it would serve his hateful, hateful, a#@ right.
Oh yea, BTW, Colin Powell did not want to go war.........it was as usual a bunch of RICH WHITE MEN who send their poorer WHITE MEN'S kids off to fight A WAR ONLY THE RICH WILL BENEFIT FROM and it is also ANGRY WHITE MEN LIKE JESSE who decide to send your jobs overseas and lay your butts off. There are no minorities in these companies or in places of power to do these type of things. So be mad at your own kind.

Anonymous said...

I'm not originally from n.c., but
I do consider myself a north
carolinian. Jesse Helms has given
this great state a bad name. I hope
with his death people will see our state differently.

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