Died on the Fourth of July
National Review Online
Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July — a fitting end for a true American patriot.
He was one of the most consequential conservatives of his generation. When North Carolina elected him to the Senate in 1972, for the first of five terms, he was part of a Republican minority. Within even that small band, he was willing to stand alone. His penchant for holding up legislation and casting the only vote against popular bills earned him a nickname that stuck: “Senator No.”
It is easy to rattle off a long list of what Senator No opposed. First and foremost was Communism. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was an aggressive and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union. He refused to overlook the evils of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. During the 1980s, he led efforts to support Nicaragua’s contra rebels against the Sandinistas and their incipient totalitarianism.
Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July — a fitting end for a true American patriot.
He was one of the most consequential conservatives of his generation. When North Carolina elected him to the Senate in 1972, for the first of five terms, he was part of a Republican minority. Within even that small band, he was willing to stand alone. His penchant for holding up legislation and casting the only vote against popular bills earned him a nickname that stuck: “Senator No.”
It is easy to rattle off a long list of what Senator No opposed. First and foremost was Communism. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was an aggressive and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union. He refused to overlook the evils of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. During the 1980s, he led efforts to support Nicaragua’s contra rebels against the Sandinistas and their incipient totalitarianism.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 6:33 PM
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