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Jesse Helms and 9/11 Conservatives

Submitted by aberman on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 11:47

I'll get straight to the point:  I am a Recovering Liberal who voted straight Democrat up until 2004 when--much to the chagrin of my family and many friends--I pulled the lever for George Bush.   I do credit Jesse Helms for his tremendous positive role in the foreign policy arena.  However, rightly or wrongly, I and a great many others would not have been willing to cross over from liberalism to conservatism if Jesse Helms had played as large a role in the 21st century as he had in the 20th.

Up until the exodus of Jesse Helms, Trent Lott, and Strom Thurmond, the Left could always claim that to be a conservative or a Republican was to support racism.  I'm not saying that the claim was true. I'm saying that the claim was effective politics.  The Left cannot do that anymore and that is a very very good thing for conservatism and the Republican party.

 

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How repulsive.

Submitted by Jon Sandor on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 16:28.

 I and a great many others would not have been willing to cross over from liberalism to conservatism if Jesse Helms had played as large a role in the 21st century as he had in the 20th.

 

But if it were not for 9/11, you'd have no problem at all in voting for the party of Byrd and Al Sharpton and Rev Wright. Thanks for the lecture on what a wonderful person you think you are. Maybe you need to take your preening moral self-righteousness back to the Democratic party. You'll be more at home there.

 

 

Talk about self-righteousness

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 16:32.

Maybe you need to take your own self-righteousness someplace where they're not afraid of confronting a movement's faults. This isn't the place.

Look at your own movements faults

Submitted by Jon Sandor on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 17:25.

Then get back to me on mine.

While you quoted me:  

Submitted by aberman on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 17:48.

While you quoted me:

  I and a great many others would not have been willing to cross over from liberalism to conservatism if Jesse Helms had played as large a role in the 21st century as he had in the 20th.

you dropped the leading clause, which is essential:

'However, rightly or wrongly,...'

My point wasn't that it was moral to vote Democrat rather than Republican while Jesse Helms was around.  My point is this:  The move from left to right involved a psychological process that included overcoming a disdain for the conservative side of the aisle-- a disdain that made it very difficult to hear and evaluate the arguments rationally.  That difficulty was eased substantially when Jesse Helms, Trent Lott, and Strom Thurmond were no longer major figures in the Republican Party.  As to why I had no such blockages when it came to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Bella Abzug, or any of the far left wing-- well, it's because I grew up in an environment that tolerated crazies on the Left while still respecting the Left as a whole.  This is not a claim of righteousness or moral authority; it is a simple statement of fact.

 

Consider this Aberman!

Submitted by Lynn on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 18:40.

Another finger pointing thread.....

I and a great many others would not have been willing to cross over from liberalism to conservatism if Jesse Helms had played as large a role in the 21st century as he had in the 20th.

If Helms had been a man of the 21st century he would have treated the racism issue very differently.  He was a man of his times just as Thomas Jefferson was a man of Virginia in the days of slavery.

The times we live in make us who we are, both the good parts and the bad. I will honor Helms for the good things he did for this country and I will not stand still for anyone calling me a racist because of it.

Jon, I don't blame you for taking umbrage at the threads here today. I submit they aren't worth it.

I see there's a lot of people with nerves rubbed pretty raw here

Submitted by aberman on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 19:58.

Jon clipped my sentence. I'd appreciate if you re-read both my original sentence and my later comment in which I tried to add context.

If you want to consider Jesse Helms a man of his times, go ahead.  If you feel that he-- and through him, you-- have been unfairly painted as racists over the years, well, I can respect that. But I think you're missing the key point: Polarizing figures polarize.  Once the polarizing figure goes away, debate gets easier.

I can see you get your news from AP

Submitted by Lynn on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 20:27.

Polararizing was their description of Helms too.