I like the way everyone here acts as though Thurmond’s positions haven’t changed since 1958, the year of his infamous filibuster. Since that time, he became the first southern senator to put blacks on his staff, endorsed numerous black South Carolinians for political office, backed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and regularly won the support of a sizeable chunk of South Carolina’s black community. Forgiveness is evidently a virtue in short supply around here.
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Hey, Muad’Dib, you’re not perchance the British comic who had a routine mocking Alanis Morrissette’s song Ironic, are you? 
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Nitpick: Ed Byrne is Irish 
Wow. Never thought I’d be defending Strom Thurmond. Now THAT’s irony.
He was also the first Senator to hire an African-American aide, in 1970, and supported the creation of a holiday for Martin Luther King. Sure, he’s supported horrible positions in the past, but his positions also changed, albeit grudgingly, with the times.
I’m not saying we should all be crying our eyes out, far from it. I just think it’s terribly compassionless to dance on his grave. The Civil Rights and Gay Rights movements are about the equal value and dignity of all people. To support these movements, and then gleefully celebrate the death of a man who supported terrible positions yet changed over the years, is hypocritical.
Negative. Don’t be ignorant.
In 1996 he voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Strom_Thurmond_Civil_Rights.htm#1996-281
In 2000 he voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Strom_Thurmond_Civil_Rights.htm#2000-136
With respect to his anti-gay position, he never repented. Ever.
Well, if he supported Clarence Thomas’s nomination, that settles it.
I am now dancing unrepentantly on his grave.
Please show me where I asked you to rend your garments and gnash your teeth over his death.
I was raised to believe that laughing and rejoicing over a man’s death is an un-classy thing to do, even if the man was guilty of bad things himself, YMMV. Therefore, in my opinion, Thurmond was wrong, and people who are kicking up their heels are also wrong. Got it?
No, none of the revelers supported legislation to make Strom Thurmond a second-class citized. Good for them. They also didn’t storm any French beaches in 1994 to liberate anyone from the Nazis.
You know what, what the hell am I doing, I didn’t even like the guy. Laugh it up, celebrate yourselves silly, I don’t give a rat’s ass.
Er, he was the first (Post-Reconstruction) Senator from the South to hire an African-American aide, not the first Senator.
And obviously I meant 1944, not 1994.
Boo-freaking-hoo
'96 vote, he voted “nay” along with 49 other “homophobes”?
Abraham (R-MI)
Ashcroft (R-MO)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (R-CO)
Burns (R-MT)
Byrd (D-WV)
Campbell (R-CO)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coverdell (R-GA)
Craig (R-ID)
DeWine (R-OH)
Domenici (R-NM)
Exon (D-NE)
Faircloth (R-NC)
Ford (D-KY)
Frahm (R-KS)
Frist (R-TN)
Gorton (R-WA)
Gramm (R-TX)
Grams (R-MN)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heflin (D-AL)
Helms (R-NC)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Kassebaum (R-KS)
Kempthorne (R-ID)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Mack (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nickles (R-OK)
Nunn (D-GA)
Pressler (R-SD)
Roth (R-DE)
Santorum (R-PA)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-NH)
Stevens (R-AK)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thompson (R-TN)
Thurmond (R-SC)
Warner (R-VA)
The links about the second vote don’t work (obviously not your fault!)
Strom was apparently very personable, a product of his time and place, who did revisit his own bigotry (with mixed success). However, changing a mind that has had an opinion for nearly a zillion years does not happen overnight. He was apparently very loyal to his consituency - even his AA consituency (if patronizing in his loyalty).
All that, but I still have to say “Do you think he died just so he could spin in his grave?”
Didn’t he also campaign in favor of a MLKJr holiday?
I thought it was just the opposite, that he didn’t want his state to observe the holiday or for the state flags to fly at half mast.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2075662/
To those of you who said he regretted his past. He seemed quite proud of it.
For the Thurmond apologists, I offer this from Slate, written last December. It does a pretty good job of debunking the myth of Strom the Repentant Racist. And of course he never felt the need even to pretend to reform his fucked up actions regarding the rights of gay people.
When he and Helms retired earlier this year, I read a quote from a former staffer of one of them to the effect of don’t rejoice that they’re gone because they’re not. Generations have gone from their offices into positions of power and authority and their influence will be felt for decades to come. The thought of it chilled me to the bone.
My Slate link is the same article which is linked to in the first sentence of the article in Sterra’s link.
“In the 1970s, he became the first Southern senator to hire a black staff aide and to sponsor a black man for a federal judgeship.”
Cite - The Slate
Looks like you’re right, SuaSponte. I was going off a report from our local CLear Channel affiliate. Should have known better.
But let’s not confuse the issue here. I’m not defending Thurmond’s stances in the slightest. Indeed, I find him and what he symbolizes to be absolutely reprehensible. I’m not objecting to people vilifying him. I’m objecting to the giddy reaction some dopers have had to his death. While I revile the stances he took during times of his career, and some that he continued to hold, it’s reprehensible to dance on his grave. IMO