Remembering Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp was the first Republican I campaigned for after becoming a Republican myself. I met him at a fundraising luncheon here in Houston back in 1987. I believe that if he would have won the nomination and then the Presidency instead of George H. Bush, we would never have had to deal with and be embarrassed by the power hungry Clintons. Imagine that.

Kemp was my kind of guy. A faithful husband, a great father and he was pro-life and pro free market. But he was a "compassionate conservative" that understood that our party needed to reach out to minorities and the poor. As Peter Roff at Fox Forum remembers, Kemp spoke about our responsibility as the party of Lincoln:

"....that as Lincoln’s heirs they had a responsibility to reach out to the poor, the disenfranchised and the nation’s minority communities to show that the GOP had an agenda for them. That it wanted to help them rise up, to succeed, to acquire wealth and to be able to realize the “American Dream,” a better life for their children than they themselves had. "

He was, unlike so many politicians, simply a good man. He understood that the "American Dream" can never be given to someone by the government. It can only be achieved through hard work and self responsibility. It's a lesson so many Americans have yet to learn.

No one understood better how tax cuts generate a better and more prosperous economy.

Peter Roff:

"Kemp became a most enthusiastic supporter of supply-side economics, a theory that essential held that allowing people to keep more of what they earned by cutting tax rates would fuel growth in the economy.

History has proved him right. Today, throughout the world, the supply-side theory is a revealed truth to all those who value hard work, initiative and, above all, liberty."