The Jesse Helms Legacy
Jesse Helms died recently and people are judging his legacy.The pundits and the blogs are formulating an adequate eulogy. Either you loved him or hated him .Senator Helms was a true conservative who played hard to win .Whether it was against communism , or civil rights ,you knew where you stood. Jesse Helm's stoked the fears of the white working class in his senatorial campaign against Harvey Gantt. Helms campaign advertising pitting black voter against white voter, thank God our country has matured . The Republican party and its candidates in their desire to get black voters must never stoop again to the low level of the Helms advertising. The only thing that add needed to incite white anger and backlash was to use the "N word" .
Jesse Helms supporters will thank him for staying true to his conservative principles. As an American who completely abhors prejudice of any kind , I felt that Senator Helms expressed his views regarding African Americans in an old school way. Thank God ,school is out and we have moved on . RIP - Jesse Helms.
Jesse Helms supporters will thank him for staying true to his conservative principles. As an American who completely abhors prejudice of any kind , I felt that Senator Helms expressed his views regarding African Americans in an old school way. Thank God ,school is out and we have moved on . RIP - Jesse Helms.
posted by EdGray4America.com at
4:10 PM
6 Comments:
I will say something nice about him..though needless to say anyone who came into office with the primary platform of opposing Martin Luther King as a "communist" and barely shed his arch-segregationist roots afterwards is going to have a tough time getting positive marks in his favor.
He was someone who did what he believed regardless of polling. Regardless of money. Regardless of what ANYONE in his party felt. While he was someone who practice a paleolithic version of conservatism he wasn't afraid to listen to another opinion and go against the grain if he felt that was the right thing to do.
That was why he actually was friends with Bono and a supporter of reducing third world debt. He didn't care if his colleagues didn't like it or what anyone thougt. If he thought it was right. He did it.
By the same token he was instrumental in removing US support for both Ferdinand Marcos and Manuel Noriega. In fact he worked tirelessly with John Kerry on this issue.
Yes I could mention a lot of things he did and supported which I very much disliked. But I respect that he was authentic and never hid exactly who he was. I wouldn't mind a few of the George Bush rubber stamps in Congress showing some of that.
If he did anything,his ad and studying the effects of it will help Obama. It will do so in the way that Obama and his camp are now prepared for something like this, which Gantt wasn't. It is helping Obama position himself, and do things like he did in that church to minimize racial backlash. He'll probably also position on affirmative action too. helms ad and its effect will help Obama to see how not to get caught like a deer in the headlights like Harvey Gantt did.
Nothing good to be said about Jesse Helms.
Obama may not be a 50/50 shot in NC......but Hillary had no shot.
If he wins Virginia he'll likely win North Carolina too, by the narrowest of margins.
Jesse Helms Legacy
by edgray4america 24 HOUR POLL
Which Jesse do you favor ?
Jesse Jackson
48% 44 votes
Jesse Ventura
35% 32 votes
Jesse Helms
16% 15 votes
I disliked Jesse Helms intensely.
Stonger than that actually, I probably hated him. I'm not happy he's dead. I'm not happy when anyone dies, but I didn't like the.....
I've lived in North Carolina most all my life and I'm almost 50. And like him or not, he did represent the majority of people in NC.
I remember both runs made by Harvey Gantt. And both times, AA voters came out in record numbers to vote for Harvey. And both times rural white voters came out in record numbers to vote against Harvey.
Sadly, in NC, the same thing will happen to Obama. NC was and still is so red it makes me sick. Obama is a great candidate, but he was the wrong choice if our goal was to turn NC Blue.
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