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

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Helms/Dole Edwards

When Margaret Thatcher first visited the US as Leader of the Opposition, she was denied use of the British Embassy to meet with American conservatives. Jesse Helms offered her his own office, and that is where she met Ronald Reagan for the first time. He was a major force in moving the GOP to become more socially conservative in the 70s and 80s. He was a courageous legislator and he is misunderstood.

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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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The myths around Carol Moseley Braun and Helms' opposition to the civil rights have long ago been debunked. They are similar to the myths that racist Democrats became Republicans after 1968 or that Goldwater voted against the CRA because he was a racist. These are nice stories that Democrats tell each other to make themselves feel good. Regarding his support for Ian Smith, many conservatives felt the same way at the time, and Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe has made history view Smith rather kindly.

Was Helms privately somewhat racist? Probably. But his "open racism" is mostly a myth perpetuated by people seeing what they want to see. Alex Castellanos is arguably more responsible for that than Helms.

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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.

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The fact that there's 4 "best" votes for Jesse Helms is just sad. There are probably better conservative NC Senators who aren't two steps away from being Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Nathan Bedford Forrest himself is a misunderstood figure. The original Klan was not the same organization as the Second or Third Klans of the 20th century. It was more of a Democratic Party paramilitary group, and Forrest disbanded the Klan when it was clear that it had gone way too far.

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.

Reagan and Thatcher both not-so-quietly supported Apartheid South Africa and minority rule in Rhodesia, but I don't see anyone here who defines their careers by that. Same thing with HIV/AIDS. In my opinion, the original concept of Apartheid, separate nation-states, was not itself a bad idea. The problem was that Boers got greedy and wanted all the land, and committed indefensible atrocities to protect their supremacy.