Proof that hate makes you live longer.
Nah. Thurmond was many things, but hateful wasn't one of them. He was a social conservative who saw the existing institutions as necessary for stability and not someone who was vile and hateful towards non-whites. Were it not for the Dixiecrat campaign of 1948 leading to his isolation from the Democratic power structure nationally, he may well have ended up like Hollings politically.
Yeah, he was wrong, but making all people you disagree with into villains makes it tough to spot the real villains. He was no Tillman or Bilbo.