RIP, Jack Kemp

Politics in recent years has often been a breeding ground for hatred. Kemp was the opposite of a hater. He was all positive energy. If there was one thing he did hate, it was racism. Over and over, he tried to get his party to reach out to African Americans -- not simply the more affluent in their ranks, but the very poor whom he really did believe would benefit from policies geared toward enterprise, including supply side tax cuts, enterprise zones and tenant ownership of public housing. He was serious about this mission when he served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Jack truly and deeply wanted to give people the chance to improve themselves. He had seen how it could work close up. His father had started with nothing. He borrowed money to buy one truck and eventually developed his business into a profitable trucking company. Jack wanted to distribute that kind of opportunity and as broadly as possible. As the author of the Kemp/Roth tax-cutting legislation, Jack became the godfather of the Reagan domestic agenda.