Best and Worst Senators of the Past 50 Years: North Carolina

[Blair]

Sanford/Tillis

Tillis may be a xenophobic extremist, but there is an adulterer and an open racist on this list.

Please provide concrete examples on how Jesse Helms was an open racist.

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Referring to an African American Senator

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Supported the White Minority, and racist Government in Rhodesia

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[Blair]

You do know it's possible to oppose both Mugabe and Smith right? History looks at Ian Smith as a racist (and I say that with my Dad being born in Rhodesia in the 50's, and living there in the 60's)

Anyway its beside the point. Helms was a cretin, and genuine sh**t. It's possible to be a principled conservative (Orrin Hatch for example) without being like Jesse Helms. Heck if Strom Thurmond is considered less racist than you then you've got a problem

[Blair]

Honest question - is being a racist the worst thing in the world? That's the line most of us have been fed since childhood, but we're all human beings and we're all flawed. Is being a racist so bad that your life's work cannot be viewed in a net positive sense if you are a racist? I don't think so, but from what I've seen in these threads is that the "racists" are immediately branded as beyond redemption, sometimes ahead of convicted criminals and corrupt/inept lawmakers.

No- hence why many democrats/Republicans came to accept people like Bryd, and even Thurmond for moderating their views over the year. There's a difference between supporting segregation in the 60's, and being a poisonous turd like Helms.

Supporting Apartheid South Afirca, Rhodesia, Opposing Martin Luther King Day and his entire efforts to stop HIV/AIDs funding shows that Helms was awful.