Tony Perkins from Family Research Council honors Jack Kemp:"What comes after a Saturday night speech by Hubert Humphrey?" That was one of the old jokes in Minnesota politics. The answer was Sunday morning. The same might have been said about Jack Kemp. And, like the liberal Democrat Humphrey, the conservative Republican Jack Kemp was a happy warrior. Kemp easily matched Humphrey's passion for civil rights for black Americans. But unlike Humphrey, Kemp sought to help black Americans overcome the legacy of slavery and discrimination not by increasing the government's role in their lives, but by encouraging such innovative solutions as education vouchers and inner-city enterprise zones. Kemp was convinced that free markets had more to offer minorities than government handouts.
Jack Kemp's Big Idea was to make the Party of Lincoln once again the party of the working man and woman. Calling himself "a bleeding heart conservative," Jack took up the cause of tax cuts that led to Ronald Reagan's landslide victories in 1980 and 1984. He wanted the GOP to stand unapologetically for growth. He wanted to persuade minorities that entrepreneurship was the strongest ladder for achievement. He agreed with Jack Kennedy that "a rising tide lifts all boats." The Kemp-Reagan message of smaller government, lower taxes, and economic growth was never more necessary than now.
One of Kemp's great ideas will not be highlighted in today's deserved media tributes to this good-humored man: the Kemp-Kasten Amendment. That critical pro-life rider played a crucial role in preventing U.S. tax dollars from being used to push abortion around the world. It was a natural for the pro-life Jack Kemp to say we shouldn't argue about what some call "potential human life." Instead, Jack Kemp thought we should fight for the potential in every human life. Sadly, Kemp-Kasten was one of the first measures President Obama chose to steamroll in his first days in office.
I thank God for Jack Kemp's service to our nation, for his faith and his enthusiasm. I pray that the Kemp family will be comforted in knowing that their beloved father and husband received in his time the accolades he richly merited.
