The difference between young segregationist firebrand Jesse Helms and elderly "pro-life" culture-warrior Sen. Jesse Helms is that there was never any difference.
For Helms, “conservative” was not an ideology or an inclination. Nor was it a principled stance based on “values.” It was a useful tool for the pursuit of his overarching goal of segregation and white supremacy. When he thundered against Communism he wasn’t talking about Khruschev, but about Martin Luther King Jr. and the “outside agitators” he claimed were ruining the up-until-then blissful state of race relations in North Carolina. When he spoke of “small government” it was always about keeping the feds from enforcing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in the state.
