Santorum Praises Racist Jesse Helms, Attacks Obama For ‘Failing’ To Unite America On Race

Rick Santorum continues to tack to the right, praising racist North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and attacking President Obama as a racial divider.

To many, if not most in America, the mere mention of the name Jesse Helms brings up an association with racism. Helms of course was a long-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina who switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP in 1970 after Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, which he opposed.

One of the most emblematic vestiges of Helms’ racism is this re-election ad, produced by now-CNN contributor Alex Castellanos, showing a white man crumpling up a rejection notice. “You needed that job,” the infamous voiceover says, “you were the best-qualified. They had to give it to a minority.”

Upon Helms’ death in 2008, Washington Post veteran journalist David S. Broder wrote an op-ed, “Jesse Helms, White Racist.”

Helms, of course, was exceptionally anti-gay as well, calling gay people “weak, morally sick wretches.”

In September, Senator Ted Cruz announced that America needs “a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.”

Last week, Rick Santorum, a likely Cruz competitor in the race to the White House, took a page out of the Texas Tea Party Republican’s book.

“There was no one nicer than Jesse Helms,” Santorum told conservative listeners when he guest-hosted Steve Deace’s radio show. “I mean, I don’t think a single Democrat would tell you that on a personal level, there was anybody that was more gentlemanly, more kind than Jesse.” 

Santorum then attacked President Obama as someone who makes political disagreement “personal.” 

“I’ve never seen a President who’s done more to divide Republicans against Democrats in the Congress as this President has.”

The former Pennsylvania Senator and crusading anti-gay religious conservative also took time to praise televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell, who was also considered a racist by many. Falwell, himself the founder of Liberty University, lamented when Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status because it had banned interracial dating. He also campaigned against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and racial de-segregation.

Santorum went on to attack the President, claiming Obama’s “greatest failing” is that he did not unite the country around race.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
Hat tip and audio: Right Wing Watch