Understanding North Carolina's Political Paradox

By D. G. Martin
Posted Monday, April 21, 2008

 E-mail this page    Printer-friendly page

Chapel Hill, NC - "It is God-fearing, gun-owing, lock-em-up-and throw-away-the-key, military-loving state. And race feelings, while diminished, are still a powerful force. It is a state that loves NASCAR, pick-up trucks, and plainspoken politicians who don't put on too many airs."

In the epilogue to his new book, "The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics," Rob Christensen responds to the question of "how the same state could elect both a rock-ribbed conservative like Jesse Helms to the Senate five times and a progressive like Jim Hunt as governor four times."

There is more, he continues: "Somewhere in the state's political soul beats the heart of a commercial hustler. North Carolina is a once-poor state on the make. There is a booster spirit about the state that wants the best universities, the best roads, the biggest skyscrapers, and the best basketball teams."

The short answer, Christensen explains, "is that North Carolina is a closely divided state."

There is a longer answer, one that is more complex, more interesting, and, as told by Christensen, a rich saga of the conflict of ideas and strong personalities.

To explain the Jesse Helms-Jim Hunt paradox, Christensen goes back more than 100 years to show that their different political movements originate from the same source. That common beginning was the political revolution led by Furnifold Simmons that ousted a multiracial Republican-Populist coalition from control of state government, disenfranchised African-Americans, and led to the election in 1900 of Charles Brantley Aycock as governor. Simmons, a U.S. Senator from 1901 to 1931, led a Democratic party "machine" that controlled state government during those years.

Aycock, while supporting disenfranchisement, also fought passionately to improve the educational opportunities for whites and blacks, serving as an important model for future pro-education political leaders. His immediate successors, most often part of the Simmons group, pushed pro-business, "good government," and economic development programs.

In 1928, O. Max Gardner won election as governor, beating the Simmons forces. Gardner led a new political dynasty (the Shelby Dynasty), one that built on the legacy of Aycock and Simmons and emphasized a business-like approach to government. The Shelby Dynasty controlled North Carolina government, off and on, through the governorship of Luther Hodges (1954-1961).

However, in 1948, a populist adherent of Aycock's theme of education for all, Kerr Scott, beat the Shelby Dynasty's candidate for governor and briefly interrupted the pro-business tradition. Scott's appointment of UNC President Frank Graham to the U.S. Senate led to a cataclysmic election battle between Graham and Willis Smith that divided successors of Charles Brantley Aycock on the issue of race. Supporters of Smith, like future U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, supported continued white control and segregation. Supporters of Graham, like future Governor and U.S. Senator Terry Sanford, generally supported a more moderate approach.

After his election as governor in 1960, Sanford displayed the portraits of his heroes, Scott and Graham, prominently in the governor's mansion. They hung beside the portrait of Aycock, another of his heroes, because of his advocacy for education, and one of Gardner, acknowledging Sanford's understanding of the importance of economic development and "good government."

Jesse Helms vigorously opposed the cautious and moderate approach to the civil rights movement of Sanford's predecessor, Luther Hodges, and to Sanford's election. Through his daily editorial commentaries on television, he mobilized the same kind of racial attitudes among whites that Simmons and Aycock had tapped to win control in 1898 and 1900.

Building on these and other conservative themes, Helms and his allies created another powerful North Carolina political dynasty, one that helped the Republican party grow strong enough to challenge the Democratic monopoly on state politics begun by Simmons and Aycock.

In fact, during the Helms era, Republicans dominated U.S. Senate and presidential elections in North Carolina.

But Democratic followers of Terry Sanford and his progressive policies on race and education, including governors Jim Hunt and Mike Easley, have held on to control of state government, notwithstanding the growing Republican strength. They have succeeded, according to Christensen, by blending their progressivism with a large dose of conservative social values, vigorous economic development efforts, and careful attention to important business interests.

Helms AND Hunt. It is a North Carolina paradox, but one that Christensen's fine book helps us begin to understand.

------------------------------------------------------------

D.G. Martin is the host of UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at 5 p.m.

This week's (April 27) guest is Zelda Lockhart, author of "Cold Running Creek."

Zelda Lockhart
Cold Running Creek
During one of the most tumultuous times for the North American continent (pre and post Civil War) three generations of women, both Native American and African American, struggle to be free in Zelda Lockhart's book Cold Running Creek.

In this episode, the Hillsborough resident shares her enlightening and revealing story set amid a chorus of swamps, voodoo, floods, and the inevitable cold-running creek.

Upcoming NC Bookwatch programs on UNC-TV at 5pm, Sundays:

Sunday, April 27, at 5 PM
Zelda Lockhart
Cold Running Creek

Sunday, May 4, at 5 PM
Mike Lassiter
Our Vanishing Americana: A North Carolina Portrait

Sunday, May 11, at 5 PM
Joe and Terry Graedon
Best Choices from the People's Pharmacy