Every day he remained in office was an offense to decency. Upon his retirement the Democrat party fawned over Byrd and gave him a hero's send off. I recall hearing Democrat's apologists say that Byrd had "turned over a new leaf" and "learned the error of his ways." Well and good if he recognized the horrible results of his "passionate" beliefs; let him humbly serve as a citizen the rest of his life to attempt to repair some of the damage his ideology caused, but NOTHING can excuse him enough for him to ascend to a position in our government, as a representative of We The People. Bird lost the moral standing to serve as an elected official; no one said he couldn't labor to write his wrongs as a private citizen.
"In December 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:
I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944[11][18]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_we_stand,_divided_we_fall
THAT needs to have it’s own thread!