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'''Jesse Helms''' (born Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., October 18, 1921, d. July 4, 2008) was a five-time [[Republican]] [[U.S. Senator|senator]] from [[North Carolina]].<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Helms, throughout his tenure as United States Senator was known for his [[conservative]] principles, including his support for a strong defense, individual rights, the oppressed, and support for freedom. Like most conservative politicians who eschew political correctness, Helms was frequently the target of mainstream [[media bias]], despite his former career in the media.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> Helms was a staunch advocate for equality under law, but due to his Southern background and incorrect party affiliation, his positions were misrepresented through typically biased reporting.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080609062721/http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#handsadFiction or Truth: Correcting myths about Senator Helms]</ref> However, Helms opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>Larry Margasak, Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser, Newsweek, July 5, 2008, [http://wwwusatoday30.newsweekusatoday.com/idnews/144633topstories/2008-07-04-3453838024_x.htm Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser], [[USA Today]]</ref> Helms also opposed extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Reagan called Helms a "lionhearted leader of a great and growing army."<ref>[http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723/ Conservative icon Jesse Helms dead at 86]</ref>
Frequently Helms was the target of massive, heavily funded [[liberal]] efforts to defeat him at reelection, and every time Helms crushed the liberals and won handily. In 1990, a weak election year for [[Republicans]], polls just prior to the election suggested that his [[liberal]] African American opponent Harvey Gantt would prevail. Helms ran a final advertisement that became famous as the "hands" ad, showing a white pair of hands and a voice complaining that he lost a job opportunity due to [[affirmative action]], which his opponent supported.<refname=npr>The voice in the ad stated, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is."[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003Longtime Sen. Jesse Helms Was Conservative Purist], [[NPR]]</ref> The [[liberal]] press accused Helms of injecting race into the campaign, to which he responded:<ref>http://www.name=npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003</ref>
:"Absolutely not. What am I supposed to do? Ignore everything that involves a black man? That would make me speechless in this campaign, and Mr. Gantt knows how to dish it out but he can't take it."
While Helms might be called an Internationalist, his support can be understood more in terms of Western military alliances that strengthened US Security such as [[NATO]] as opposed to organizations such as the [[UN]].<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic1</ref>
Helms died at age 86 of natural causes on the [[Fourth of July]], 2008, in [[Raleigh]].<ref>[http://newswww.yahoofoxnews.com/sstory/ap2008/2008070407/ap_on_re_us05/obit_helmsformer-north-carolina-sen-jesse-helms-dies-at-86.html Former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms Dies at 86], [[Fox News]]</ref>
== Early life ==
Helms' parents were Jesse Helms Sr., the local chief of police, and his wife Ethel Mae Helms.<ref>[http://www.answersnytimes.com/topic2008/jesse-helms07/05/us/politics/00helms.html?_r=0 Jesse Helms Dies at 86; Conservative Force in the Senate], [[The New York Times]]</ref>
=== Education ===
Helms attended public schools. He said this about his high school principal:<ref>[http://apusatoday30.googleusatoday.com/articlenews/ALeqM5glajfJbQP2WmgGcjVzbfYrT4VKWwD91N40A80nation/2008-07-04-1010723398_x.htm Jesse Helms quotes on life and politics], [[USA Today]]</ref>
:"If he taught us anything, he taught us that we are personally responsible and accountable. I remember that day, and always will, when he called in several from the senior class. ... He said you can make it in this country. He said it's going to take hard work. ... He said you're going to succeed. He said you'll own your own homes and you'll have two cars and all that. I thought this man had lost his mind."
=== Journalist ===
In 1939, Helms quit Wake Forest to work as a [[journalist]] on the Raleigh News and Observer. By the age of 21 he managed one of the paper's smaller papers'Raleigh Times''.<ref>[http://www.answersnewsobserver.com/topicnews/jessepolitics-helmsgovernment/politics-columns-blogs/rob-christensen/article45791325.html Christensen: Jesse and Dot Helms, a newsroom romance ]</ref>
During World War II, Helms served in the Navy as a recruiter. It was during his military career that he discovered his knack for broadcasting.
=== Senator No ===
Helms' opposition to increasing the role of the federal government in the lives of every day citizens earned him the title "Senator No". From his first term to his last Helms rejected nominations of unqualified liberal candidates, against federal spending (except military spending and federal aid for farmers),<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref> and opposed naming a holiday for Dr. [[Martin Luther King]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080705044912/http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/04/obit.helms/index.htmlEx-Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86], [[CNN]]</ref> Helms supported and befriended qualified candidates regardless of party affiliation whom he felt would better the country, such as [[Madeline Albright]] for US Ambassador to the United Nations and later Secretary of State (ref: Madam Secretary, Madeline Albright). Helms was known for his bipartisan friendships despite ideological differences. However, Helms was broadminded and tolerant of contrary views, and unafraid to be proven in error. For instance Helms originally stood against increased funding to stop the devastation caused by [[AIDS]] in Africa. Helms change of heart on this issue in his own words: "It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong."<ref>Jesse Helms, ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)</ref>
=== Standing on principle ===
Helms challenged the Republican party to promote the socially and economically conservative values of the American People. Helms's conservative values won him a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union for the entire last decade he was in office and never more than 10% according to similar liberal groups. Terry O'Neill—of the far left [[feminist]] group, the [[National Organization for Women]]—on hearing of Helms ill health and planned retirement reacted gleefully with the statement "It's a very good thing for the country that he's leaving the Senate."
Helms stated his disbelief in the old adage that "morality cannot be legislated". Helms took an active role in campaigning and in helping the Republican party to engage these values. First in his early work for Smith, then locally and eventually in early 1980 played a key role in helping the father of modern conservative, Ronald Reagan, win the Republican primary and take the White House back from the liberal president Jimmy Carter. Helms's political action committee spent over $4.6 million to help Reagan capture the white house.<refname=freep>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040627092855/http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htmJesse Helms: To mold a nation (Three decades of political soul )]</ref> Until recently, when Helms became incapacitated, in his home state of North Carolina few Conservative Republican candidates would run for state or national office without an endorsement from Helms.
=== Foreign Policy ===
Helms believed that America should stand against dictators and help bring its values of freedom and democracy to the world. This belief caused Helms to stand against "Most Favored Nation" status for China (which the Reagan and Nixon Administrations supported). At the same time, Helms stood for a strong national defense and strongly opposed Communism and would occasionally compromise on the humanitarian part of his policy when it suited those aims, such was the case in his support for the dictator Augusto Pinochet.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/principles/default.asp</ref> Helms opposed arms control and nuclear test-ban treaties even when some of these measures were supported by Reagan himself.<ref>http:name=freep //www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>
=== Liberal opposition ===
==Social Clubs==
Jesse Helms was a Freemason.<ref>[http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/jesse-helmsJesse Helms: A Complicated Man]</ref><ref>S. Brent Morris & Arturo de Hoyos Is it True What They Say About Freemasonry? M. Evans The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group Lanham, Maryland 2010 page 107</ref><ref>The Everything Freemasons Book: Unlock the Secrets of this Ancient and Mysterious Society J. Young & B. Karg 2006 F+W Media page 132</ref><ref>http://www.mastermason.com/toowoombalodge132/Famous%20Masons.html</ref> He was also a member of the Rotary Club.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/595/000022529/]</ref>
==Work for Americans held captive==
== Summary ==
Helms and his conservative values can be summed up in his own words: "Compromise, hell!" Helms said. "That's what has happened to us all down the line -- and that's the very cause of our woes."<ref>http:name=freep //www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>
== Quotes ==