Ben Jones, who played the good ol’ boy mechanic in “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV series and parlayed his fame into a political career and two terms in the U.S. House, has died.

After playing Cooter for all seven seasons of the series from 1979 to 1985, Jones turned to politics and was elected to the U.S. House from a district near Atlanta in 1988. The Democrat served two terms before he was redistricted out of the seat.

In his four years in Washington, Jones was known as a Democrat who could buck his party. He was liberal on social issues and conservative on economics.

What’s more American than going from actor to politician

A few other things I’ve seen get omitted from basically all of these articles (outside of maybe the cognitohazard conservative ones)

During the 1960s, Jones was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. He was arrested during sit-ins, and was attacked on two occasions by the KKK.

Jones also served as the International Chief of Heritage Operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans from July 2014 to late 2018, having been a member for over 15 years.

This man’s brain was 65% worm by volume.