Bryan Hardin Thrift. Conservative Bias

Jesse Helms, five-time senator from North Carolina died on July 4, 2008, a timely departure from life that probably reaffirmed the belief of his most devoted followers that he was chosen by God. For more than a half century as a journalist, behind-the-scenes political adviser, spokesman for North Carolina bankers, right-wing radio and television announcer, and finally as the state's longest-serving senator, Helms proudly claimed the title of “Senator No.” Early in his career as a right-wing broadcaster, he proposed the abolition of public schools and repeatedly attacked higher education. (He described the University of North Carolina [UNC] as the “University of Negroes and Communists,” a typical example of his lifelong racism and red-baiting.) Once elected to the Senate he fought the Supreme Court's ban on school prayer; in 1982 he introduced a bill that would ban federal funding for most abortions, which he compared to the Holocaust; he loathed gays and lesbians; and he opposed the creation of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. To be sure, there were some things he tenaciously supported: red-baiting, segregation, apartheid (he was an unstinting supporter of the South African and Rhodesian white governments), unregulated capitalism, tax cuts for his wealthy supporters, and his state's tobacco industry.

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