Washington - Former conservative Senator Jesse Helms, a
staunch backer of racial apartheid and one-time chair of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, died Friday, a conservative think tank
confirmed.
Helms, 86, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for 30
years, led the resurgence of Republican conservatism in the US South
as he opposed civil rights moves such as voting rights guarantees and
the designation of Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday.
His death came on July 4th, the day Americans celebrate their
independence from Britain.
Few other figures represented such a red flag to liberals as
Helms, who forged the movement that unseated centre-left Democrats
from their traditional stronghold in the South.
From President Richard Nixon's election in 1968 onwards, Southern
white voters have been a key player in putting Republicans in the
White House even as the country moved to guarantee civil and voting
rights to African Americans and other minorities, largely under
centre-left Democratic initiative.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, an
African-American, has signalled his determination to reclaim the
South for Democrats on November 4, but analysts are skeptical.
They point to the fact that black voters already have high voter
turnout, which has brought them success at the local and state level
but not changed the Republican tide for presidential elections in the
South.
The Heritage Foundation, one of the country's most conservative
think tanks, hailed Helms as a 'truly great American and champion of
freedom.'
Heritage President Ed Feulner called him 'one of the most
consequential figures of the 20th century.'
'Along with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, he helped establish
the conservative movement and became a powerful voice for free
markets and free people,' he said. 'The defeat of Soviet communism
and the rise of Ronald Reagan would not have happened without his
intrepid leadership at decisive times.'
Helms served in the Senate from 1972 to 2002, retiring the same
year that another of the country's last surviving segregationists in
US national politics, Senator Strom Thurmond, stepped down.
Thurmond died in 2003.
Helms was politically active as a segregationist Democrat until he
switched to the Republicans in 1970, and was elected to the Senate in
1972. During his 30-year Senate career, Helms forged an iron-clad
reputation as an unyielding conservative opposed to abortion and
affirmative action for minorities.
For a generation, he was consistently the favourite negative icon
for the Democratic Party, which often invoked him as a spectre to
open the purses of campaign donors. Just invoking Jesse Helms could
draw hissing and boos at partisan rallies.
He had an international reputation for promoting a hard line
against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and for railing against the
United Nations, foreign aid and immigration.
Helms had contentious re-elections; in two challenges by a black
mayor, the campaigns were marred by bitter racial overtones. But his
unassuming style and unfailingly polite manner kept Helms popular
with politically moderate North Carolinians.
@ Hope you get a taste too.Jul 5th, 2008 - 16:27:15
Karma?
If there was really anything like karma, Mr Helms would have died a much more horrible death. Maybe something like death by fire?
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