Jesse Helms, the often notorious Senator from North Carolina died on the 4th of July, 2008 at the age of 86.
Opponents labeled Helms anti-semitic and anti-black, because of his stands AGAINST all foreign aid and AGAINST race-based preferences, but in reality Helms was ardently pro-Israel, even insisting on calling the West Bank “Judea and Samaria,” despite opposing ALL U.S. foreign aid and he supported anti-discrimination laws, EVEN laws that instituted race-based preferences, a stand that is logically consistent in every way. Though it's true that Helms supported segregation, as did many, both black (Malcolm X, Stockley Carmichael and the black nationalists) and white, it CAN'T be argued that only the whites who supported a separation of the races, as many misguided revisionists are wont to do, were "racist." If the likes of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond were "racist," then they were no more or less so than the likes of Malcolm X (who later recanted many of his views, as did George Wallace) and other blacks who supported and STILL often prefer separation as a "viable choice."
Helms was despised by the Left, in large part because he famously refused to compromise. In a 1959 editorial he wrote, “Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?"
Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son. They adopted the boy in 1962 after the child, 9 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy, said in a newspaper article that he wanted parents.
Long time friend and former North Carolina GOP Rep. Bill Cobey said, "He stood by the things that he believed in, and the incredible thing (that) was so wonderful about him is that he never, whether you agreed with him or not on issues, it never affected his personal relationship with you," Cobey said. "He believed he had a right to stand for what he believed in, and he believed you did, too."
Cobey added, "It's just incredible that he would die on July 4th, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in the mold of those great men."
Opponents labeled Helms anti-semitic and anti-black, because of his stands AGAINST all foreign aid and AGAINST race-based preferences, but in reality Helms was ardently pro-Israel, even insisting on calling the West Bank “Judea and Samaria,” despite opposing ALL U.S. foreign aid and he supported anti-discrimination laws, EVEN laws that instituted race-based preferences, a stand that is logically consistent in every way. Though it's true that Helms supported segregation, as did many, both black (Malcolm X, Stockley Carmichael and the black nationalists) and white, it CAN'T be argued that only the whites who supported a separation of the races, as many misguided revisionists are wont to do, were "racist." If the likes of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond were "racist," then they were no more or less so than the likes of Malcolm X (who later recanted many of his views, as did George Wallace) and other blacks who supported and STILL often prefer separation as a "viable choice."
Helms was despised by the Left, in large part because he famously refused to compromise. In a 1959 editorial he wrote, “Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?"
Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son. They adopted the boy in 1962 after the child, 9 years old and suffering from cerebral palsy, said in a newspaper article that he wanted parents.
Long time friend and former North Carolina GOP Rep. Bill Cobey said, "He stood by the things that he believed in, and the incredible thing (that) was so wonderful about him is that he never, whether you agreed with him or not on issues, it never affected his personal relationship with you," Cobey said. "He believed he had a right to stand for what he believed in, and he believed you did, too."
Cobey added, "It's just incredible that he would die on July 4th, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in the mold of those great men."
Our site takes a somewhat unbalanced view of the good Senator, and the coincidence of of the 4th of July passing. Yours is decidedly more charitable. Thanks for adding your comment to the blogging universe.
ReplyDeleteLike all people, Helms was a mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteHis biggest flaw, at least to the Left, wasn't any racial bigotry, even today the left is notoriously bigoted, just in more subtle ways, no, it was his adhering to the decidedly anti-modernist view, a view endorsed by America's Founders, that "freedom" is NOT mere "license" ("Doing whatever we each want, so long as we don't harm others"), BUT instead LIBERTY (best defined as full self-ownership and "the grinding burden of complete personal responsibility").
Great blog you have there, I've bookmarked it and will go over it more fully as time permits.
Jesse was a true conservative jmk.He took some positions even I would have had to rethink. Helms was a conservative pitbull that didn't back down from his core beliefs. He's didn't sellout to political correctness either. If we had more conservatives like Helms in the congress, America wouldn't be in the situation it finds itself in now.
ReplyDeleteGod bless Tyrone.
ReplyDeleteHelms has been smeared as both a "racist" and an "anti-semite," largely for opposing race and gender based preferences and for opposing ALL foreign aid.
In a sense, he was the last of the "Old Americans" (pre-WW II citizens who LOVED this country and didn't eschew nationalism, nor traditional Ameircan values.
The problem is, with a media that is overwhelmingly far-Left Liberal, smears, even when untrue, take hold.
He was uncompromising (much like yourself) and a strict adherant of America's Founder's design - much like both Scalia and Thomas.