How should we mourn the passing of Jesse Helms?

Having been raised in the tradition that holds one should never speak ill of the dead, I was initially not inclined to a great dissertation  on Jesse Helms. Suffice it to say he was one of the more deeply problematic politicians the United States has ever produced. But the conservative 'acclaim' is coming so fast and furious from the usual suspects (Wall Street Journal, ABC, CNN), it seems impossible to ignore a corrective to what is turning into one of the sillier excercises in hagiography in recent memory. Perhaps, without insult, we might accurately review his life and works.

Why? Because as Shakespeare noted via Anthony lo these many hundreds of years ago, the good that man does oft lies interred with his bones, the evil lives after.

To begin, if Helms is to be considered a 'conservative icon' as CNN insist, that might offer an indication of the value we can  now place on the entire conservative movement.  After all, the so called 'dean' of the US Press Corps, David Broder, called Helms "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country." He basically unloaded on Helms, for, as Anthony might have put it, being a politically ambitious man. And using whatever tools he could find to further that ambition.

"What is unique about Helms – and from my viewpoint, unforgivable – is his willingness to pick at the scab of the great wound of American history, the legacy of slavery and segregation, and to inflame racial resentment against African Americans," Broder wrote shortly after Helms announced that he wouldn't seek re-election in 2002.

Not only was Helms cheerfully 'picking at the scab' of racism to win elections in North Carolina, he was a rabid anti-Communist, supporting right wing dictators by supplying their death squads throughout both hemispheres.

In South Africa, Argentina, Mozambique, Honduras, and Nicaragua, Helms cooperated with racists and fascists who have nothing in common with the ideals of American democracy

No doubt, like the trashy mob of murderers and cut throats the right has enlisted throughout the globe in their murderous 'anti-Communist' effort, Helms considered himself a 'freedom fighter' as well. The fact that his bespectackled contenance could be so easily mocked is beside the point. The seats of Republican power have for decades now been larded with Walter Mittys of the worst sort, ideological misfits on a mission that only their corporate masters care about, and only they and their rube electorate would dare call patriotism. Afterall, waving a flag and murdering a commie is easy election fodder. No need for apologies on that count. Jesse was 'strong'.

Perhaps his most egregious sin--in quite a long list-- was the unabashed support of D'aubuisson from El Salvador who oversaw the notorious dirty war, highlighted by such conservative 'victories' as the murder of Arch Bishop Oscar Romero and the slaughter of innocent nuns. What did Helms have to say about D'aubuisson?

"All I know is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."

Helms was not opposed to mixing his two favorite political strengths--anti-Communism and racism -- into a uniquely Southern stew of ignorance and intolerance. Filibustering against making the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday, Mr. Helms called King a practitioner of "action-oriented Marxism" whose principles were "not compatible with the concepts of this country."

Presumably, principles like civil disobedience, passive resistance and Christianity.

Despite his ostensible 'courtly' manner, Helms was viewed--even by fellow conservatives--as deeply divisive, and his divisiveness was not restricted to race. According to Mr. Helms, gays who suffered from AIDS did so as the result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." In 1994, he declared that Bill Clinton "better watch out if he comes down here [to North Carolina]. He'd better have a bodyguard." The year before he'd explained his opposition to a Clinton nominee was based on politics as well as sexual orientation. "She's not your garden-variety lesbian," he said. "She's a militant-activist-mean lesbian."

Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, and the founding father of the New Right, alleged that Mr. Helms "has not helped the conservative cause one bit." His ideological opposite, Senator Alan Cranston, Democrat of California, said in the early '80s, "Since Jesse Helms started his warfare against those who disagree with him, there's a meanness in the Senate now that I don't think has been seen since the days of Joe McCarthy."

Yes, 'mean' is the right word, not 'courtly' or 'Southern gentleman', 'mean'....

The man ABC News now describes as a "conservative icon" in 1993 sang "Dixie" in an elevator to Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, bragging, "I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries."

Mean, and offensive.

More recently, when a caller to CNN's Larry King Live show praised guest Jesse Helms for "everything you've done to help keep down the niggers," Helms' response was to salute the camera and say, "Well, thank you, I think."

What remains of Jesse Helms' tenure is an ideological compulsiveness and rigidity on the right that has helped to bring this country to exactly where it is today:

Loathed at the UN by the community of nations that Helms--a rabid isolationist--always hated--knee deep in a ignomonious pre-emptive war, our infrastructure deteriorating even as we waste billions in tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country and spend billions more per month funding the only thing Jesse Helms thought was worth spending money on--outside of his tobacco subsidies -- the U.S. war machine.

Meanwhile, the dollar depreciates further in part because of our unsupportable debt, gas goes through the roof and thanks to Helm's 'principled' stand against alternative energy programs, the United States is dependant on some of the most corrupt  regimes on earth for its energy needs.

Jesse Helms is dead, another 'strong' conservative meets his maker. Jesse, I grew up watching your TV editorials on North Carolina television where you rattled on about your various prejudices at the public expense. Lord knows how many hearts you twisted or confirmed in their hatreds. The good in you was, unfortunately, only rarely made public, as when Bono finally talked some sense into you about the African AIDS campaign, but that came so late in the game. I can mourn your passing as one mourns the loss of any human life--primarily a sadness for those in your family left behind, but if your life offers a testimony of sorts--its no doubt an object lesson in what becomes of a movement and a party that loses its ability to grow beyond a childishly narrow and mean spirited world view--as perfectly expressed by you.

As Steve Clemons notes:

Former Senator Jesse Helms may have died today in a mortal sense -- but the brand of pugnacious nationalism that he seeded in America's contemporary politics lives on in his former legal adviser John Bolton, Dick Cheney and others.

The good that man does oft lies interred with his bones, the evil lives after...."We will be battling Helms as an ideological force for decades to come."