In the obit for former Senator Jesse Helms on NBC Nightly News, they mentioned (or at least hinted at) his racist background, as they should have, but I was stunned by the conclusion.
Martin Savidge reporting (at about 2:58 of the NBC video segment):
But there is one point on which both critics and supporters do agree: Helms led the rise of the modern conservative movement.
This was followed by the disreputable Pat Buchanan saying, “He was the most principled conservative in the United States Senate.”
I don’t see what’s “modern” or “principled” about Jesse Helms, who came to fame in North Carolina through his overt racism.
And – most of all — I don’t see how NBC has the nerve to say that both critics and supporters agree that “Helms led the rise of the modern conservative movement.” Until Martin Savidge said so, I had never heard anyone say anything even remotely like that. I’ve heard many people or groups credited with leading the modern conservative movement: Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, William Buckley, and Rush Limbaugh, and in a more indirect manner, the Weekly Standard, the Olin Foundation, the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation. I have never heard anyone, until I heard Martin Savidge tonight, say anything like this: “Helms led the rise of the modern conservative movement.”
UPDATE: JPS in the comments helpfully points out that many conservative organizations are making claims similar to NBC’s:
The folks at the American Conservative Union disagree. David Keene’s quotes in the NYT obit don’t use those words exactly, but are pretty close. Former ED David Josi referred to him as, among other platitudes “quite possibly the most important U.S. senator ever to have served.”
Then there’s ConservativeHQ today saying in a press release today “It was the New Right that energized and led the conservative movement in the 1970s and 1980s and our beloved leader was Senator Helms.” ConservativeHQ.com
All I can say is that, while I am not myself in the conservative movement, I know some people who were — and are — major players, and they never said anything about Helms that was even approximately similar to these sentiments. But then the people I talk to are academic in their profession or their approach to the world.