Current mood: 
nauseated
nauseatedJesse Helms, former senator from North Carolina, passed away today. Good riddance.
Before Helms came along, Democrats and Republicans merely disagreed. Once he and his ilk came to power, America became polarized as never before. He preached intolerance, not dialogue; bigotry, not brotherhood. This occurred only a few years after the wave of freedoms and feelings of brotherhood that marked the 1960s and early 1970s. What a step backward we took when he came to power!
Helms hated civil rights. He had no tolerance whatsoever for anyone or anything that wasn't WASP. Not only did he tolerate nothing left-leaning, he tolerated nothing left of himself. He used terms like "tax-and-spend Democrats" like rubbing salt in a wound. And rub he did.
My stomach boiled every time he opened his mouth, as I went through my college years and my 20s and 30s. Just hearing his hate-filled voice on the radio in this afternoon's newscasts brought back those feelings of revulsion. It sickened me then and sickens me now to think he was a major leader in the Senate.
Problem was, he did lead. Lots of people followed him. Rick Santorum was his protégé, and if you like Santorum, you would have loved Helms. Both in beliefs and methods, Santorum was -- is -- Helms reincarnated. There are others, too. (*shivers*)
It's a great thing to stand up for your beliefs, but it's a better thing to get consensus than to browbeat and denigrate those who disagree, as he did. It's wonderful to win people to your side, but it's better to achieve that by lessening opposition, not by wielding a club against those opponents, as he did. He won people to his cause by pandering to hate and fear, and set a standard many follow to this day, damn him.
Much as I don't care for them, it's OK to share Helms's beliefs. However, it's not OK to act like Helms did in fostering those beliefs.
Good bye and good riddance, Mr. Helms. I just wish it was possible to undo the harm you did this nation.
2 comments:
If you want a reason why Congress can't get anything done, start here. He was a key promoter of the useless polarization that has paralyzed lawmakers in recent years.
Comments on the original 2008 post:
Pittsburgh Storm
I fail to see how this relates to the core GOP values I recently listed on my blog. Rick Santorum, however, was one of the few politicians, if there were any others, to write a book on the importance of family (It Takes a Family).
There are Democrats who can be considered "Tax and Spend"ers. Just as some PA Democrats now are considering raising your State Income Tax by 30%+.
I am self employed and pay 15.3% in "Self Employment Tax" (my share of Medicare and Social Security which are twice as high as the W2 employee and chances are, these programs won't be there for me when I need them) and 3% for local tax. Add on the current 3.07% for state income tax and the first $21.37 of every $100 I make is gone. And thankfully due to my income and family size, I don't have to pay Federal...yet.
If you want people to work and be self-sufficient, you have to leave people what they earned. I can not speak for the GOP of Helm's time, but of this time, I see no one who is against Equality.
The Democrats, however, say that Fathers are not needed with all their programs targetting single parents. That is not Equality. The new Supreme Court pick stated that Latino Women are better, or at least, can make better decission than a Caucasian Man. That is not equality, either. And, the Democrats say a woman can terminate her rights and responsibility of an unwanted child while violating my 14th Amendment Right to Equal Protection Under the Law. Once again, that is not Equality.
So here in 2009, if there was one party who did not support equality, it would be on the left.
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