# Why do Strom and Ted still get voted in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373 "2002-12-13T00:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/21 "2002-12-13T20:59:46Z")
I think the more interesting example is that of Jesse Helms. He was effectively ostracised by the Senate, and as far as I know in the course of his entire Senate career he introduced no major legislation benefitting his own state of North Carolina. He wielded enormous power, but that was a personal political power which conferred almost no benefit to his constituents. In fact, it may have conferred a negative benefit to his constituents. North Carolina ranks [near the bottom](http://www.nemw.org/fundsrank.htm) on federal spending per resident. I think a good argument can be made that Jesse Helms has been a demonstrable _liability_ to his state for the past thirty years. So what in the hell kept him in office? Come to think of it, I don’t even want to speculate on that. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/22 "2002-12-13T21:34:54Z")
Weirdly enough, I asked an almost identical question [two years ago yesterday](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50596). Given that conjunction, I must have been inspired by the 98th birthday party. ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/23 "2002-12-13T22:07:18Z")
The two people who wanted to replace him both ran on the position of “being exactly like Strom Thurmond”. ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/24 "2002-12-17T09:15:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by puddleglum \* > **I have read that every South Carolina widow gets a call of condolence from Strom Thurmond and that every high school graduate in the state gets a congratulatory call from him.** He never called me. Maybe he knew I wasn’t going to vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/25 "2002-12-17T23:30:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by I am Sparticus \* > \*\*Ted Kennedy has passed more legislation than any other senator in the Senate, and probably more than most combined, so your assertion that he is worthless and hasn’t done anything doesn’t square with the facts. He is probably the most effective senator in history. > [http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa030900a.htm](http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa030900a.htm) \*\* I agree. He speaks and fights for a lot of people, not only in Massachusetts, but the rest of the country too. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/26 "2002-12-18T15:00:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by puddleglum \* > \*\*I have read that every South Carolina widow gets a call of condolence from Strom Thurmond and that every high school graduate in the state gets a congratulatory call from him. \*\* Not _every_ high school graduate, only the females. And he only called the widows 'cause they’re back in the dating pool. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/27 "2002-12-18T18:08:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*Weirdly enough, I asked an almost identical question [two years ago yesterday](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50596). Given that conjunction, I must have been inspired by the 98th birthday party. \*\* You wanted to know how he was in the senate at 98? Why he was just a young man at the time! A spring in his step and a smile on his face ready to take on the world. You don’t want the youth in the senate? Next thing you’ll be calling for term limits. ---
**Author:** ![lout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@lout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lout)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/28 "2002-12-18T23:23:51Z")
Strom Thurmond, over 40 years in the Senate, has never sponsored or lead a single bill of any importance. Nothing. All Strom does is sit there and attach a few pork barrel riders to legislation. Like him or now, Ted Kennedy has sponsored major legislation throughout his career, most recently the education bill signed and supported by Bush. Huge difference. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373/29 "2002-12-18T23:54:25Z")
What really spooks me about Thurmond: I happen to own a 1923 Los Angeles High School Semi-Annual (like a yearbook, except in those days they used to graduate a class every semester, hence Semi-annual). I get a big kick out of looking at it; it seems like high school was taken a lot more seriously in 1923. Most of these kids were presumably born around 1905. Strom Thurmond could be their older brother! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-strom-and-ted-still-get-voted-in/142373.md?page=1)