Jack Kemp, RIP

One could argue that George H. W. Bush bears a large responsibility for Obama’s ascendancy and for conservatism’s exile from electoral politics.

In 1988, Jack Francis Kemp warned his Republican party that if anyone but him were the GOP nomination, the Reagan Revolution would die.  George H. W. Bush won the nomination and killed the Reagan Revolution by the end of the convention.

Perhaps it was Kemp’s example that led J. C. Watts and Steve Largant to the Capitol.  Kemp, of course, was the stand-out quarterback of the San Diego Chargers and, later, the Buffalo Bills.  His popularity, charisma, and universal friendship with mankind propelled Kemp–who interned in the Reagan Statehouse in California–into New York’s 38th Congressional District.  The district was blue-collar, union, and Democrat.  Kemp was its first Republican.

While I was campaigning for Kemp in South Carolina in 1987, I met George W. Bush, who was representing his father, the Vice President.  Had the VP himself asked, as W. did, that I vote for Bush, my devotion to Kemp could not have been shaken.  I was a Kemp fan before Reagan, and I would remain one for life.

The few times I met Kemp remain magical.  All three meetings were in South Carolina in 1987 and 1988.  He announced his withdrawal from the GOP race following the South Carolina primary.  Though he was not in South Carolina for the announcement, he met with campaign committee members the day before. He was upbeat then as always.

I will cherish the opportunity I had to serve JFK as a campaigner.  The man who called himself a “bleeding-hear conservative” and “a heavily armed dove” won a place in my heart almost as dear as Ronald Reagan’s and William F. Buckley’s.  My first born son was named in honor of Jack Kemp and of my dad.  

Eternal rest grant unto our brother, Jack, oh Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.