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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
.................. Uhhhhhh............
Still thinking................
Better hold my tongue, then.
I've always found your posts to be worth reading, especially considering that you bring the perspective of a long-time GOP member to the table.
Your notion of discussing just how perfectly terrible Helms was as a man and a politician makes sense... simple name-calling doesn't get us anywhere.
However, I do take disagree with your characterization of those who voted for Helms, over and over again, as "ignorant." I don't think they were ignorant at all. I think those voters knew exactly what Helms stood for, in every detail, and I think they voted for him all those years precisely for that reason. They knew him well.
This country has NEVER resolved the tension between the rebels and the loyalists of the 18th century. The modern South is a perfect example of that, as voters there continue to send one monarchist prick after another to Washington.
All those Southern voters know exactly what they're doing. They're doing what they've always done: shit all over our constitution, the revolution, modernity itself.
I would argue that the chief reason our country is in such a terrible mess right now is because of those unreconstructed loyalists who populate the South, who would really be much happier in an authoritarian state. They sent a bunch of savage, greedy, ignorant, dickwad Texans to the White House, for eight years, out of their endless sense of grievance and fear.
The South is our crazy uncle in the basement..only, we just let him run the household for the last eight years.
Until we blot out this racist, homophobic, xenophobic, loyalist-monarchist taint in our body-politic, this country will never truly realize its greatness. In fact, the only times this country has been great, was when it fought furiously against everything the South stands for, and won a battle or two..but never the war.
I don't know the answer. I just know the problem. And it's a bad problem. It goes back beyond colonization of the New World, far back into the mists of time. I don't know how we fix it. But we better figure out how, or, in their utter craziness, the South will destroy this country. They've already gone a good way down that road.
"However, I do take disagree with your characterization of those who voted for Helms, over and over again, as "ignorant." I don't think they were ignorant at all. I think those voters knew exactly what Helms stood for, in every detail, and I think they voted for him all those years precisely for that reason. They knew him well."
I lived in NC from 1975-1983, when he was at the heights of his power. NC is filled with vicious Southern racists, people who are ugly in their souls. Helms represented racists with racist statements. He was re-elected several times because he was a racist, and because small-town NC residents are mostly assholes.
Occasionally I have considered returning to NC to take jobs. I can never convince myself of doing that. There are a lot of ugly disgusting people in NC, and NC is much better than AL, MS, GA, and parts of FL. LA, TX, OK, AR and parts of TN also are filled with ugly people with ugly hearts.
For what it's worth, I'm a straight white male, and I'm pleased as punch that right now the Hounds of Hell are feasting on that bastard's entrails.
It's the bestest 232nd birthday present ever.
And for anyone wrapped up in the notion that this is a terrible way to act after another human being has died, I refer you to Hunter S. Thompson's obit of Richard Nixon: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm
Anything less than outright glee right now would dishonor the man. He was a racist, homophobic scumbag of the worst order. Let's never forget it.
North Carolina's last "great white hope"
Finally reached the end of his old Dixieland rope
He left this world with the rancid scent
Of pork rinds on his breath
While America celebrated its independence
And the glad tidings
Of his long overdue death.
As someone who lived in NC for almost all of Helms' "service," I have three comments with respect to this article and the letters about it:
1. There was a cognitive dissonance to Helms' graciousness that was revealed in spades come election time, i.e., he would lie, cheat, and steal to hold on to power. For example, when running against Jim Hunt in 1984, one of his ads included a chart of NC tax revenues under Hunt's governorship. Revenues increased dramatically over this range because- in a large part thanks to Hunt- NC was growing rapidly in terms of both overall population and new businesses opening shop (most notably in Research Triangle Park where companies like IBM and predecessors of GlaxoSmithKline established large presences). In the ad, however, rather than crediting Hunt with helping to fuel the growth the ad deceitfully and incorrectly claimed that these were tax increases that occurred under Hunt. And if things were really tight, he could always be counted on for a late-in-the-campaign underhanded surprise, like the now famous "white hands- you had to give your job to a minority" ad run against Harvey Gantt in 1990. These are just a couple of numerous examples of ads designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and give that slice of the populace considering taking the high road for a change excuses for staying in the ditch. To me, cognitive dissonances like this equal disingenuousness to the extreme. When self-righteousness is another ingredient, it becomes the hypocrisy so typical in ideologues. You can't be gracious part-time and genuinely be gracious.
2. This is your typical posthumous, sugar-coated article where they have gone to the deceased's disciples for their information without doing any further research. Take, for example, this statement: "He ... was in the Navy during World War II." Sounds great, doesn't it? In NC it was well known to those willing to listen that Helms' was stationed in NC for the whole of WWII where he served as a "radio recruiter." That's not to say he didn't serve his country, but considering the sacrifices made by others it's at least worth some qualification.
3. While I think some of the comments in the letters are mean-spirited, those of you calling for civility should consider Helms' example. From comments like "she's not your garden variety lesbian" to saying President Clinton would need a body guard to come to NC, Helms was unsparing in his attacks on people who disagreed with him or didn't live by his "principles." I'm not sure he'd be any more civil than some of those here if his ideological opposite had been the one who died.
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
