Content starts here
CLOSE ×
Search

RIP, Jack Kemp

Former football star and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp passed away this weekend. Over the past few days there has been an outpouring of eulogies from people across the political spectrum who have hailed Kemp as an example of what is best about American politics.
Here is Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne

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.

And from the other side of the political spectrum, Mona Charen in the National Review calls Kemp "Our JFK,"

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.

Clearly, Kemp was a unique sort of politician. We wish his family our throughts and prayers.

Search AARP Blogs