Folks on the right might want to listen to Ross on this issue:
But a specific ad is one thing; Helms himself is another. He simply was an awful bigot, and worse he was an awful bigot who never expressed a shred of remorse, so far as I know, for his toxic approach to issues ranging from civil rights to HIV to foreign affairs. Far from being the sort of politicians who conservatives ought to defend, out of a sense of issue-by-issue solidarity, he’s the sort of politician conservatives ought to carefully distance themselves from, because his political style brought (and continues to bring) intellectual disrepute to almost every cause with which he was associated. Inherent to conservatism is the responsibility to stand up and say to bien-pensant opinion: Just because a bigot opposes something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. But the necessity (and difficulty) of making that case, whether the issue is affirmative action or “comprehensive” immigration reform or the NEA and Piss Christ, is all the more reason for conservatives to keep their distance from actual bigots, even (or especially) when they’re representing the great state of North Carolina in the U.S. Senate. Jonathan Rauch had it right in 2002: If Ronald Reagan and Helms had similar positions on countless issues, that doesn’t prove that Helms was good for conservatism; it only suggests that conservatives should look for more Reagans, and fewer Jesse Helms. I’m happy to defend Helms’ views on a variety of issues, but the man himself has no business in the right-wing pantheon, and the conservatives who have used his death as an occasion to argue that he does are doing their movement a grave disservice.
Is the era of Helms-like bigotry finally nearing an end?
PaulW
No. Obama’s headed to a two-term spell in the White House, remember? We’re already seeing the flare-ups of ‘code words’ and race-baiting on the far-right blogs if not the swift-boat ad makers. Just wait for the GOP convention, especially if Pat Buchanan makes a reprise of his 1992 Nuremburg speech.
cleek
the recent unpleasantness Obama encountered in the Appalachian states suggests that we haven’t.
gbear
No, although the era of electing anyone with Helms-like bigotry may be.
calipygian
Fred Barnes and his disgraceful performance on Fux Nooz Sunday suggests that Helmsian levels of stupidness are still alive and well when it comes to Sodomites.
El Cid
But there would be no Reagan without Helms — the two and their movements are inextricably linked.
And it is completely wrong to view Helms as just the simpleton bigot — for 7 years he was the Executive Director of the North Carolina Bankers’ Association. This is no marginal figure brought in by economic elites — he was both. When he spoke for the Tobacco Radio Network, he represented one of the most powerful economic constituencies in the entire South.
Jamey
No. Not the end. Not by a long-shot. And Douche-hat knows it.
A lot of Conservatives are drawn to the GOP precisely because they’re the party of Jesse Helms and his ilk. I suspect the GOP will just get better at hiding the “crazy aunt” contingent of their party every four years or so.
El Cid
The problem for the country was that the ‘”crazy aunt” contingent’ of the Republican Party took over the Party and ran much of the country’s agenda for the last 30 years and had absolute power over all branches of government from 2002 – 2006.
You think that if Jesse Helms had been President he would have nominated someone crazier and more incompetent than John Bolton to a diplomatic position?
Zifnab
Hurray Reagen!
Here’s a man who was definitely not a bigot. His gutting of civil rights and economic reforms during the 80s, his opposition to AIDS research and treatment, and his warmongering in the Middle East at the expense of the American Taxpayer were performed entirely on ideological grounds and were in no way motivated by racial insensitivity.
Launching a crusade against the invisible Cadillac driving Welfare Queens and raising the ante on the billion dollar drug war while funneling cash to the drug-peddling Iran-Contras – these are the policies we should look for in a national leader. Speaking ill of black people? That should be confined to our yachts and country clubs, because it really bruises our image.
Hurray Reagen!
nightjar
Hell no same racism, just a different shade of color.
Just Some Fuckhead
Why do we care what Ross Douthat thinks? I quit reading MY because the two of ’em with those hideous roundtables spiked my nerdometer. I saw one with Ambinder and it was all I could do to keep from punching the screen. These are the sorta mouth-breathin’ know-it-all fatboys that give liberalism a bad name. Never had to do an actual days work in their entitled lives but they got all the fucking answers for the rest of us.
NewUnansweredQuestions
It was pointed out today on CNN that Barack Obama will make his acceptance speech to the Democratic Convention on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. (Today we are informed that this speech will be made outdoors to a crowd of about 75k people).
45 years and we have a pretty good chance of seeing a black American president. I’m not sorry that Helms is dead, but I wish he had lived to see Obama sworn in as president. I can’t think of a better repudiation of Helms’ foolish and mean-spirited “values” than that.
jake
Sure John, and you’ll get a pony and 72 virgins for Christmas.
bob
Reagan was shit, too. As was Nixon, Bush Sr, and now that I think of it, everyone who voted for Dubya is shit, too.
AnneLaurie
Douthat, who is all about surfaces, neatly encapsulates the “New” Conservatism: All your bigotry should be disguised behind a shiny plastic facade of “reasonableness” and “comity”. As El Cid says, those of us who were old enough and smart enough to be progressives during the Reagan Era knew perfectly well that Saint Ronnie was the well-mannered, nicely-dressed frontman for the evil little thugs like Helms; there were a lot of cartoon trophes and jokes about that particular dynamic duo back in the day.
Helms — and Newt Gingrich, the Baby Boomer Richard Nixon — are temporarily out of favor with the “Right” people and their courtiers the Media Village Idiots because their aggressive me-first ugliness disturbs the glassy surface of the Politics-Is-Only-Another-Sporting-Event sump pond. But the only real difference between Jesse Helms and Mitt Romney is that Willard had the luck to be born pretty and rich instead of ugly and middle-class; they’re both vicious selfish sorry excuses for human beings.
Delia
I think Grover Norquist was the recent respectable gooper clown who called Obama “John Kerry with a tan.” And he’s the supposedly libertarian wing of the VRWC. So much for the demise of racism.
And then we mustn’t pass up on Kevin Drum’s comment on Bush’s elegy to Helm’s:
I’d say that playing to the racist base is doing just fine.
jake
Oh yes my dear simply dreadful. We didn’t want him in our nice non-bigotted little party but that terrible brute forced his way in and we were too polite to show him the door. I feel absolutely faint at the very thought of the way he would make such coarse comments about our dear friends the darkies, the fags and the filthy wogs.
joeyess
Hardly. It’s in their DNA. Bigotry is the only way they know how to win. Nixonian playbook, page 1.
Divide, then act the victim when called on it. It’s worked for decades and they’ve put little thought to any other tactic.
Helms is the GOP. They can’t change without losing for years. And losing can’t be countenanced.
joeyess
Hardly. It’s in their DNA. Bigotry is the only way they know how to win. Nixonian playbook, page 1.
Divide, then act the victim when called on it. It’s worked for decades and they’ve put little thought to any other tactic.
Helms is the GOP. They can’t change without losing for years. And losing can’t be countenanced.
Adam
Bringing international disrepute implies that there’s some intellectual value to conservative ideas like “screw the gays” and “screw the feriners.”
Which ones, Ross?
Adam
international intellectual
prufrock
I’ve spent the past few days in the Montgomery, Alabama area visiting my sister (she’s stationed at Maxwell AFB). While I’ve been here, I’ve seen multiple Confederate flags displayed in front of houses, as well as several different Republican candidates for state and federal office campaigning as the best choice because they are conservative Christians with conservative Christian values. Now, as we know, conservative Christian values in this part of the country translate as “we know you hate darkies and fags, and so do we.” So no, I don’t think Helms-like bigotry is dead, not by a long shot (at least in this part of the country).
Speaking of repugnant political strategies, I saw something a couple of days ago here in sweet home land on the micro level that I had previously noticed only at the macro level. A woman (whose name escapes me) running for some minor state office had an ad on TV that promised she would fight to keep liberal environmentalists from raising gas prices. Yes, the new strategy is not to blame high fuel costs on speculation, increased demand, peak oil, or some combination of the three. No, four dollar a gallon gas is the fault of the liberals. Not “liberals who won’t let us drill in the ANWR and off the Florida coast.” Even that specious reasoning is too subtle for the average Alabama Republican politician. No, it’s just the fault of the liberals, period, end of sentence.
In other words, the new strategy is the old strategy. It’s also another reason why I don’t think the southern strategy is going away any time soon. The Republican Party is like a garage punk rock band that only knows three cords. They have a limited set list, but they’ll bang it out with their amps set to eleven all night long.
JGabriel
John Cole:
No, Douthat is merely discovering that Helms-like bigotry is a continuing feature of the Republican party.
.
Delia
See, it’s thing like that which make me seriously wonder how the Union can hold together. Here in Oregon we have repub Senator Gordon Smith trying to hold onto his seat by releasing ads that pretend he’s a Democrat who has Obama’s endorsement. I just actually wonder if it’s all the same country anymore.
Scott H
Why I can’t read Ross Douthat: Here he suggests that conservatives who promote Jesse Helms do their movement a disservice. How about people who promote Jesse Helms are cut from the same bolt of bigot as Helms?
nightjar
And there’s not been much gaffawing amongst the wingnut faithful over this. I think they see the handwriting on the wall saying the Conservative Renaissance (which was co-opted by southern ideologues) is currently circling the toilet bowl.
It will be interesting how they will react to this loss of power, especially to a black man with his feet up on the Presidential desk.
khead
An end?
Go review the AP primary election footage from Man.
Then go have a drink.
jake
Begging your pardon but the full translation is: “We know you hate darkies and fags because you feel so dirty when you offer them $20 and a blow job, and so do we.”
This post brought to you by The Remember Bob Allen is a Republican Foundation.
daphne
No.
K-Lo wrote an email to Bill Bennett stating that because he has been such a reasonable voice about BLACK values, he would make a fine VP.
You know, Bennett has always been on the the upside of his people’s problems — he’s a virtual BLACK man on the ticket, you know what I’m sayin’?
prufrock
I never took part three of the Rosetta Stone language software, wingnut version. Hence, the partial translation.
calipygian
Bill Bennett likes shooting dice so he thinks he’s Ashy Larry.
Jamey
Yes, El Cid, I do. Obviously.