The Passing of a Quarterback

Former Congressman, HUD Secretary and GOP vice presidential nominee and Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp died on Saturday.

There are a lot of "what if" scenarios in political history and I wonder how things might be different if Jack Kemp had won the Republican nomination over George H.W. Bush in 1988 or if the Dole-Kemp ticket won in 1996 leading to Jack Kemp being the GOP nominee in 2000 (remember Dole was already in his med-seventies in 1996). We will never know.

Jack Kemp was a different type of Republican and it is a shame the party did not follow him to a greater extent. He was a self described "bleeding heart" conservative. He was not one who tried to be a lighter, less expensive version of the Democrats. Instead he advocated conservative solutions to the problems of poverty and education. A Republican talking about poverty and education...what a concept.

For too long Republicans have ceded the landscape of poverty and education to the Democrats and allowed the media to portray the party as uncaring, indifferent or uninterested. Jack Kemp tried to change that. He advocated policies to create jobs and economic growth in the inner cities, recognizing that the best thing the government could do was create the environment for growth and change, then allow the smart people to do it. If you are familiar with some of the work that Magic Johnson's company has done in the inner cities with movie theatres and shopping centers, you have seen what Jack Kemp envisioned. It was an idea known as enterprise zones.

Kemp recognized that education mattered and was a ticket out of poverty. What he did not recognize was the establishment view that continued to chase good money with bad. Still, there were things that could and should be done to improve our schools, and if the school was beyond repair, allow parents a way to get their kids out of the failing school and into a better one.

Unfortunately the Republican Party never nominated Jack Kemp for President and his national roles were as subordinates to traditional and long time Republican establishment figures (Bush and Dole). The party lost out on an opportunity and America missed out on a great debate. Wouldn't it have been something to see Jack Kemp and Bill Clinton or Al Gore debate liberal, big government orthodoxy versus individual empowerment?

There is much talk about how to "rebrand" the Republican Party as though it were a soft drink that simply needs a new ad campaign. What it needs is what Jack Kemp tried to do: engagement in issues that for too long have only been the hallowed grounds of the Democrats. It is a shame that he will not be here to lead the offense down the field.