Your idol......"All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction." stated by Helms after Mexicans protested his visit to Mexico in 1986 to investigate allegations of political corruption (essentially, Helms was investigating as to whether or not there might be communists in Mexico)
One of the first targets of Helms' hatred was minorities and he hasn't changed much over his 76 years of life. He began his career as a pro-segregation commentator who called the University of North Carolina (UNC) the "University of Negroes and Communists". Over the course of his senatorship, he's opposed creating a federal holiday for Martin Luther King, supported the apartheid movement in South Africa, used the issue of race to win an election, and insulted minority groups. And he's still opposed to the 1964 civil rights act.
In both his 1990 and 1996 reelection campaigns, Helms used a wide variety of revolting tactics to dispose of his democratic contender. In both elections, Helms ran against a black man, the former mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt. In both elections, Helms attacked Gantt based on, largely, his race and his tentative support of equal rights for homosexuals. In 1990, Helms created what perhaps became the most infamous political ad of the modern era, an ad designed to play to the fears of whites of losing their jobs to minorities. Gantt stated that he would have a supported an equal rights bill that, according to individuals such as Helms, would have created racial quotas. Helms' ad showed a pair of white hands crumpling a job rejection letter. The voice-over proclaimed: "You needed the job, you were the best qualified. But they gave it to a minority because of racial quotas. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is." Before the ad, Gantt was shown to be ahead of Helms in some polls but "The Ad", as it became known, finished him Ads from the 1996 campaign targeted Gantt in a similar manner and began attacking Gantt on his support of homosexual groups. Seeing as how Helms is probably the most anti-homosexual senator, it should come as little surprise that Helms' opponents regularly take money from pro-homosexual groups (as they consider removing Helms from office a priority). Helms, however, tried to portray it in a more sinister light. He ran ads asking: "Why are homosexuals buying this election for Harvey Gantt?" Other ads that Helms created accused Gantt of "secret campaigns" in which he "raised thousands of dollars in gay and lesbian bars" and ran "radio ads that played only on black radio stations."
A Klansman.
Helms' soulmate?
In addition to these tactics that relied on misleading statements and occasional blatant untruths, Helms also tried to discourage blacks from voting in the 1990 race. 125,000 North Carolina voters, almost all black, were sent postcards that said they might not be eligible to vote and, if they tried, they might be prosecuted for vote fraud. The Justice Department investigated several complaints relating to the matter of the postcards being sent out and found the Helms campaign at fault. The Helms campaign, the North Carolina Republican Party, and four campaign-consulting and marketing firms were charged with violating the Voting Rights act. According to the complaint, the decision to mail the postcards was done after it was shown that Gantt had a small lead and that black voting registration was increasing at a rate faster than whites, at a rate of 10.6% to 5.3%. In addition, 97 % of the postcards were targeted at blacks and 44,000 of the cards were sent out exclusively to black voters in certain areas. The other 81,000 were sent to registered voters in primarily black precincts. While the Helms campaign signed an agreement of guilt, they never acknowledged they were responsible for the mailings and claimed they signed it because they didn't have enough money to go to court against it (which is unlikely, as Helms is one of the biggest fundraisers around). The Helms campaign and the rest were not particularly harmed by the decision and told, essentially, not to do it again.
Helms also has a history of supporting white run African nations. While there are no more white-run African nations, Helms was a vigorous supporter of the ones that did exist in the 70s and 80s. Helms was a strong supporter of white run Zimbabwe Rhodesia and interfered in its negotiations with Britain to turn over rule to the black majority (two of his aides encouraged the white Prime Minister of Zimbabwe to hold out for more concessions). He also was opposed to passing economic sanctions on South Africa when it was under the rule of apartheid. Helms' reasoning for opposing sanctions on South Africa were twofold. First of all, Helms generally acts in a manner similar to blatant racist and its no surprise he would rather see the whites in power. Helms had this to say about the blacks fight for freedom, and why he opposed economic sanctions. "All this bill [for economic sanctions against South Africa] does is exacerbate the situation in South Africa. Nobody is for apartheid, but who are we to be so pious about the efforts of the South African government to stop the riots, the looting, the shooting and the mayhem that's going on over there?". In addition to this, Helms, in later years, was connected to the International Freedom Foundation. This organization pretended to be a conservative thinktank but was, in fact, part of an intelligence gathering operation of South Africa. While it is not known to what extent Helms worked with the organization, he did serve as chairman of its editorial board for the organization's publications. The organization was designed to be an instrument of "political warfare" against the enemies of apartheid, according to a former South African spy. The foundation was also given $1.5 million a year from the South African government. Suffice to say, Helms was pretty cozy with this organzation. To be fair to Helms, the International Freedom Foundation kept its true mission a secret and there's the possibility, albeit small, that Helms didn't know what the organization really was.
Helms has also embarked on his racist crusade in a number of minor incidents. Helms has continually endeavored to prevent the creation of a national African-American History museum. He presented two arguments against it: 1) there are already museums for African-American History (Helms cited a part of the Smithsonian that focuses on the modern history of a few states and is hardly inclusive of African-History as a whole) and 2) if African-Americans get one, all minorities will want one. Helms was also concerned that it might glorify Louis Farrakhan. "I doubt many Americans want their tax dollars being spent to honor Louis Farrakhan," said Helms. Along the same line, Helms was also opposed to the creation of a national holiday for Martin Luther King because, supposedly, he was a communist sympathizer. Another incident occurred when Nelson Mandela (after being elected president of South Africa) visited the United States. As he shook hands with senators, Helms deliberately turned his back on Mandela and walked out. Helms was also angered when former Senator Carol Mosley-Braun, who's family is from the Carribbean, was opposed to letting the United Daughters of the Confederacy use of Confederate war symbols. He stated "She had screamed and hollered and cried about slavery, how terrible it made her feel to see the Confederate flag," Mr. Helms said, "I have been told she does not have a grandfather or a great-grandfather who was a slave, that she came from Trinidad or Jamaica or somewhere." Helms neglects the historical fact that slavery was widespread among the Carribbean nations. In addition to these slights against minorities, Helms also, to some degree, thanked a caller to the Larry King show on CNN who thanked him for "keep[ing] down the niggers". The transcript follows:
"And Mr. Helms, I know this might not be politically correct to say this thing, but I just think you should get a Nobel Peace Prize for everything you've done to help keep down the niggers,'' the caller said.
"Oh, dear,'' Robert Novak [the host for the night] said.
"Whoops,'' said Helms, quickly adding: "Well, thank you, I think.'' [How many times has Helms thanked someone for saying something similar away from the camera? Thousands, I would guess.]
Novak then said, ""That was a bad word. That was politically incorrect. We really don't condone that kind of language, though, do we?'
"No,'' said Helms. |
