The longest serving member of Congress Robert Byrd died Monday after suffering severe complications after being admitted to the hospital.
In addition to serving the most years in Congress — 57 — Byrd also cast the most votes of any U.S. senator — more than 18,500. Byrd held records for being elected to the most full terms in Senate history, with nine; of being the longest-serving member on any Senate committee; and of holding the most Senate leadership positions, including Senate majority leader.
His legislative tenure was defined by Southern populism; unabashed defense of coal miners and the coal industry; decades of directing federal spending to his home state of West Virginia; and an evolution on civil rights issues that saw Byrd move from filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to voting for the act in 1968 and eventually championing opportunities and programs for minorities in his later years.
Please Let us remember the Senator for being a champion of great Democratic Values
…national dems to show any guts during the dark days of 2002-2003 war fever. I will always be grateful to him for that.
It’s “Democratic” values, not “Democrat” values.
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p>TedF
He is the last of a great breed of men and women who became Senators to be Senators. They did not want to run for Governor, President, or other higher offices. They did not want to use the post merely as a way station to greener pastures. They loved the Senate and understood its traditions, its purposes in maintaining representative democratic government in this republic. They understood that they were the safeguards of our Constitution, our foreign affairs, and the ultimate decider of which legislation deserves merit. Senator Byrd understood this better than anyone else, consistently and constantly defending the Constitution as he saw it. Yes lamentably he was a member of the Klan and voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he also voted in favor of later civil rights bills, MLK day, and tried desperately to atone for his past racism, culminating in his early endorsement of the President.
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p>Similarly, he stood up for classical working class Democratic values from defending organized labor, opposing wars of choice and not necessity, and risking his life to cast a decisive vote in favor of healthcare reform. His warnings on Afghanistan are just as prescient as his warnings on Iraq and we should continue to honor his legacy by fighting for what he believed in.
Not only was he a profound racist but he was an officer within the KKK. He also pissed away more taxpayer money by sticking his name on legions of public works projects and facilities all across W Virginia.
Grave dancing and speaking ill of the dead-even if you disagree with them-is indicative of a narrow mind or poor upbringing. You Republicans usually believe in redemption, as long as it’s Jimmy Swaggart, David Vitter, or Mark Sanford. Byrd renounced his earlier beliefs, showing that he was flexible and could learn from his mistakes. He should get credit for seeing the error of his ways before he met his maker.
then when I pass, many decades from now with a little luck, I hope people aren’t afraid to remember the good, as well as the bad and indifferent. None of us are perfect, and though I don’t like ‘gravedancing,’ I don’t think people should overlook the flaws, either. Otherwise, it’s hard to learn from them. Senator Byrd had a long and bigoted past. It seems as though he changed a bit along the way for the better. People should remember both of those things.
Plus he was a racist bigot who embraced the most vile of racist symbolism, the KKK. It’s frankly remarkable that anyone on this blog would come to his rescue, but then again he was a Democrat. I’m not dancing on his grave, however, as Ryan says his racist past is as much a part of who he was as the fact that he was a US Senator.
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p>By the way, I am aware that neither party has cornered the market on racial tolerance.
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p>Imagine me lecturing you on tolerance.
Lots of racist biggot undertones there right?
Death isn’t partisan; it doesn’t matter if he was a Democrat or a Republican. You can bet that most people on BMG would have a lot more restraint if someone like Cheney passed away. As evil as the guy is, and though he has lots of blood on his hands, most people here understand that he’s got a family that would miss him.
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p>Your diatribe is indicative that you’re twisted by partisanship, though you have claimed all over BMG to be independent. I don’t know too many ‘independents’ who are members of the Republican or Democratic committees in their towns.
Robert Byrd was a bigot. If his family is reading BMG then I guess I am wrong.
Who’s the hypocrite now?
Some have said it was hypocritical for us to praise Byrd while we condemned Jesse Helms and Thurmond. The difference is that Byrd demonstrably changed. He started voting for civil rights laws, he hired black staff, he has a brown Muslim son-in law and mixed raced grandchildren which he said was part of the reason he changed on the subject, he had become a consistent advocate for minority rights. The difference is Helms consistently voted against civil rights legislation, voted against MLK day, believed until his death that MLK one of the greatest non-partisan and non-violent advocate for progressive change was a communist and a terrorist, used racist ads right through the 1990s, voted against various appointments who were women, gay, or minorities. He was an unrepentant bigot. Thurmond was a bit of a mixed bag, his voting record changed and he also hired black staff, but he never really renounced his past either. Byrd not only changed his record but renounced his past in a profound and eloquent way. Obviously there was a lot of bad about Byrd, his poor record on gay rights never really changed, he supported state sponsored school prayer, was a shill for big coal, and was the king of pork for better and certainly for worse. But he was no bigot by the time he died, Helms and to a lesser extent Thurmond still were.
We have only made progress on women’s equality, racial equality, and gay equality by the process of people from being bigots to being neutral to being supporters.
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p>If we hold it permanently against people that they were bigots, we slow down that progress.
Institutionally, the Republican Party has at least flirted with racism. Schaller’s Whistling Past Dixie makes that case statistically. Those with historical memories will recall Goldwater’s appeal to state’s rights, Nixon’s Southern strategy, where Reagan launched his campaign, and Bush I’s Willie Horton ad.
…between Byrd and too many others is that he eventually got past the bigotry he learned from his environment, recognized we couldn’t have two classes of citizen, and fought for that equality. Many others never can let go of inherited prejudices and have only learn to dress it up in more acceptable ways. His arguably unforgivable early actions on civil rights should not be forgotten, but there’s not much more that can be asked of a person in power or anyone.
Hugo Black and Harry Truman were also, at different times in their lives, members of the KKK. They were also instrumental in getting Civil Rights achievements passed. Truman arguably did more than any President to fight for civil rights getting anti-lynching bills passed, integrating the military, and getting the DNC to pass a civil rights plank. He did so under enormous political pressure, even from liberals and moderates, to go slower. Yet he never wavered in his commitment to civil rights. This was in spite of the fact that he briefly submitted paperwork to join the Klan but never paid the membership fee to formally do so. Additionally he was fond of various racist and anti-semetic jokes throughout his Senate career and his Presidency, yet there is no evidence he harbored real prejudices. Black was a far more active member of the Klan and got his political start defending a fellow Klan member who murdered a Catholic priest in cold blood. Yet he too turned out to be one of the most forceful advocates on the court for civil rights legislation, was a key vote on Brown, and upheld subsequent civil rights decisions. The South was a one party state dominated by a reactionary politics that encouraged the Klan. For many, joining the Klan was as inconsequential as becoming a Rotarian or Mason, and just as vital to advancing in the one party politics of the day. Is it morally right? Of course not. But I trust these leaders when they say they renounced these memberships and by their actions which spoke far more than their past words and misdeeds in the Klan.
Byrd was a Kleagle in the KKK. A Kleagle is an officer of the Ku Klux Klan whose main role is to recruit new members.
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p>May he and this discussion rest in peace.
…conservatives demonstrate the only type of KKK member they’ll attack is the one who changes his mind.
It must be real cool being a middle schooler in one of your classes.