Cabarrus Cheap Seats

Note: I’ve recently been asked to provide a weekly article to the Concord Standard. So, for Standard readers: This is not deja vu. Welcome to the Cheap Seats.

For me, writing about Jesse Helms is difficult, because most readers will have a greater familiarity with Jesse Helms than I.  When Jesse Helms entered the Senate in 1973, I was single-celled.  That disclaimer out of the way: our world and our state were heavily influenced by Helms.  There is also an important lesson to be gained in his passing.

There are but a handful of Senators who – without subsequently ascending to the Presidency or Cabinet – had as significant impact outside of our borders as Jesse Helms.  Case in point: the United Nations.  At the close of the 20th Century, the relationship of the United Nations with the American Public was on collision course.  On one side: a dwindling number of elites who pondered extensively the UN’s post-Cold War existence.  On the other: an American public that was growing increasingly susceptible of this increasingly corrupt institution.  The Helms-Biden Act was a harsh compromise that reconciled the rift with the UN and the American Public by remaining committed to the UN and asserting our sovereignty.

Helms’ influence on our state cannot be discounted.  His election in 1972 to the United States Senate set the stage for North Carolina to be instrumental in the then-nascent Conservative movement by being the first state to vote for Ronald Reagan for President in 1976.  This would set the stage for Reagan’s nomination in 1980 and that first victory came after Helms’ endorsement.  What’s interesting is the response by the Democratic establishment to the emergence of conservatives as a force in North Carolina.  From the State Judiciary with an impossible-to-understand public-funding scheme meant to get liberals elected on the sly to Concord City Council’s districting regime that results in more Council members getting appointed than participating in competitive elections, Democrats have worked hard to keep party affiliation secret wherever possible due to Republicans pesky little habit of winning since Helms’ election.

The important lesson from the coverage of Helms’ death is that our day-to-day life is an important factor in our legacy.  You cannot research Helms and not come up with quotes that were crass by anybody’s standard.  Those statements will probably diminish history’s treatment of his many accomplishments.  When I think of this side of Helms, I think of one of Helms’ contemporaries: my grandfather.  My mom’s dad was a Yellow Dog Southern Democrat that backed Wallace.  A few years before he died, he looked at me and told me he was wrong then.  That was the only time I’d ever heard him admit to being wrong and, at the time, I misinterpreted it as a confession.  It actually was a strange warning.  Before they write the history on all of us, we’ll have to answer to our children and their children; and it’s best to try to follow your principles in such a way as to keep that conversation from being too awkward.