By now, we are all acquainted with the passing of former senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. He was a Republican, but if you time-traveled back to 1960 and picked an average North Carolinian Democrat of his era you would find comparable views. That is to say, virulent bigotry.
Doubtless everyone is also familiar with current Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. He is a Democrat, the senior member of the United States Senate (indeed, the longest-serving senator ever). Familiar also with his past career.
Whenever a Republican blogger or pundit finds himself on the defensive regarding a Republican candidate/party/whatever's stance on race, you can reliably expect Senator Byrd's name to come up as a counter to Democrats' pointing out racism. When Strom Thurmond died, and so many Democrats commented on his past career, Byrd came up. And, just so, when Jesse Helms died and liberals pointed out that this "conservative icon" was in fact a vile hatemonger, Robert Byrd's name came up.
Byrd and Helms can indeed be compared, but Helms comes out of such a contrast looking that much worse.
Robert Byrd was born on November 20th, 1917 -- born, in fact, in North Carolina.
Four years later and 110 miles away, Jesse Helms was born.
After getting a choice radio editorial job in 1960, Helms used it as a platform to spew racist commentary, denouncing the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders, calling the 1964 Civil Rights Act the worst piece of legislation in the country's history.
But while Jesse was ranting into his microphone, Robert Byrd was living the segregationist dream in Washington as a United States Senator, speaking longly and loudly against civil rights and filibustering the passage of aforesaid awful 1964 bill, unsuccessfully (he was similarly unsuccessful in opposing the nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court).
In 1972, Helms finally made it to the Senate, the first Republican from North Carolina in nearly a century (and all he had to do was base his campaign slogan on an appeal to anti-Greek bigotry!). By that point, Byrd was the Senate Majority Whip. From his new perch, Helms waged a three-decade campaign against minorities, all the while becoming a "conservative icon".
It's here that Byrd and Helms diverge. Both were men born in South in an era when anti-black racism was pervasive and virulent. I know racism is wrong because my parents taught it to me; they received the opposite instruction from a society that was all about keeping blacks under the heel. And both men put this background to practice in their political career. And, despite their efforts, the times changed.
And thus, the crucial difference: Byrd changed. Tony Kushner wrote in Angels in America, speaking through the mouth of a talking Mormon museum dummy, that change is painful. Byrd's was neither fast, nor entirely motivated by selfless factors (the nation's political climate was undoubtedly a major factor, probably especially initially; but then, I've often found that idealism and practicality are too often assumed to be mutually exclusive motives; it took both Humphrey and Flynn to pass the 1948 Democratic platform), but I've always believed that people can change themselves, and I think Byrd has. These days he earns NAACP rankings that vary from the mid-80s to a full 100% in 2004 (bettering Teddy Kennedy in that year). He has repeatedly renounced and denounced his former career and said that he was wrong, and he has put those words into action. He even endorsed a black man (the product of an inter-racial marriage) for President of the United States this year.
Jesse Helms, meanwhile, who arrived in the Senate after the great civil rights battles were over, seemed to bitterly resent not having had the chance to fail at stopping the Civil Rights Act and Thurgood Marshall, and spent his 30 years in power fighting freedom and equality wherever it appeared. He ran viciously racist campaigns, and, when he retired, was assessed by David Broder as the last unapologetically racist white politician in the United States. It is a great shame that he will not live to see a black man (the product of an inter-racial marriage) become President of the United States.
One man is a representative of the first generation to make a go at overcoming their racist history, while the other, of the same generation, spent his life wallowing in it. And so while the latter man is dead, the former sits today as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and, God willing, will work with President Obama to fix the many problems America faces as a result of the politics of men like Jesse Helms.
So here's to you, Senator Byrd; imperfect as you are (and as I, and all people, are), you nevertheless demonstrate that we're getting somewhere.