The GOP Isn’t Helms

Even President Bush may have sighed in relief at the news that Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican, has decided not to run for reelection. Helms’ most recent foray into foreign affairs, after all, was to berate Bush as a foreign policy naif who sold out American interests by praising Russian President Vladimir V. Putin during their recent meeting in Genoa, Italy. Saying no to a run for a sixth term is surely the most welcome refusal ever issued by the man known as “Senator No.”

This marks the end of a racist politics that Helms had learned to submerge but whose vestiges lingered in his two vicious campaigns for the Senate against Harvey Gantt, an African American. It also is likely to be the end of the era of the powerful Senate crank. But the departure of Helms (N.C.) and the fading of his aged colleague Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) will be irrelevant to the conservative shift of the GOP, whose style had long since passed Helms by.

Helms is legend not for any accomplishments but for his obstructionism. His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee turned it into a Bermuda Triangle of disappeared ambassadorial appointments. Clinton administration nominee Richard Holbrooke had to visit Helms on bended knee to win confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Clinton’s secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, kowtowed before Helms to earn even brief cooperation. Curbs on tobacco companies were anathema, as bad in Helms’ eyes as expansion of gay rights. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and any softening toward Cuba were beneath contempt.

Helms’ departure will be good news for moderate prospective nominees, and the probable rise of Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar to the top GOP seat on the Foreign Relations Committee will be welcomed abroad. It does not signal much change in the party overall.

The southernization of the GOP has steadily moved the party to the right, even as it has modernized. Sen. Phil Gramm and Rep. Tom DeLay, both of Texas, and the Rev. Pat Robertson of Virginia still command the loyalty of the GOP foot soldiers--the Christian right, gun rights absolutists, anti-feminists. It was no surprise that Al Gore’s presidential candidacy flamed out in the South despite his Tennessee roots.

Helms was unvarnished. He flaunted his disdain for elites, homosexuals and the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. He had no real impact on the packaging of modern conservatism. Think of the smoothness of Sens. Rick Santorum (Pa.), Don Nickles (Okla.) or Christopher S. Bond (Mo.). If a Republican wins Helms’ seat, he or she will be more in their style. They know that conservative policies have to appeal to swing voters.

President Bush’s compassionate conservatism is another reflection of a sort of anti-Helms style in the GOP, a concession to the suburban blending of ideologies, the reluctance to witness sharp conflicts between the parties. Americans have become skittish at the sound of raised political voices. Perhaps the smoothness diminishes the color of political life, but Helms’ bluster will not be missed.