In Memoriam: John French "Jack" Kemp, 1935-2009

[thatcrazycajun]

This has emphatically not been at all a good week for the Republican Party. First they lost one of their senior Senators, who defected and put the opposition within one seat of a veto/filibuster-proof majority; then a liberal Supreme Court justice announced his retirement, with Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue blocking them from even the tiniest chance of getting another conservative into his seat. Now comes word of the death of the last real "idea man" in the Grand Old Party: Jack Kemp, nine-term former Representative of upstate New York, former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary under Bush the Elder and 1996 Vice Presidential running mate of then-Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas.

Kemp, long the leader of his party's Reaganite supply-side wing on economic policy, died of cancer at 73 last night in his Bethesda, MD home, with his family and pastor at his side. The Associated Press obituary of him is posted here.

I find myself strangely feeling sadness at the news, for all that the past eight years have utterly cemented my longtime loathing of conservatism as a philosophy of governance. Perhaps my own Congressman, John Lewis, explains why best in a quote from the AP story: "[Kemp was] a statesman who, especially in his later years, tried to reach across the aisle to solve some of our nation's problems. He was deeply concerned about the struggles of urban America, especially those of inner city youth. His voice will be deeply missed." ADDENDUM, 12:21p: Another reason is even better illustrated by this letter to his grandkids Kemp had published the day after last November's historic election, with profuse thanks to redaxe for the link.

Kemp was a "happy warrior" in the same genial, intellectual sense that the late Hubert Humphrey was for the Democrats, and one of the last civil voices of reason and principle in a party increasingly ruled by the forces of shrill ideology, cynical maneuvering and division. While I can't say I'm sorry the GOP (having forfeited its legacy as "the party of Lincoln" to become the party of Falwell, Tancredo and Junior Bush) will no longer have Kemp to advise them, my heart does go out to his widow Joanne, his two sons (who both followed their daddy's early-career footsteps into pro football), his 17 grandchildren (!!), and the rest of his family, friends and colleagues in and out of politics. And a decades-long career of service in attempt to better his countrymen's lot must be recognized, now at the end, whatever our differences.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I just posted a large part of a remarkable letter Kemp wrote post the last Presidential election.

After reading comments over at Balloon Juice, I have come to a fuller picture of him than I ever had. He was a serious contradiction; he hated gays and was a proponent of Ayn Randian philosophy and economics (including being the father of trickle-down economics), but he was as gung-ho for racial equality as any tree-hugging, bleeding heart DFH. He cared for his constituents, but other folks were utterly subordinate to philosophy.

I won't miss him terribly, but I doubt that any of the current leadership of the Republican Party could measure up even to Kemp's knees, soul-size-wise.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Wow. I had no idea he had published that; it is indeed impressive and surprising. Thank you for the link; I'm adding it to the main post, with your permission.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Go for it. It's a heck of a (public) document, and you don't need my permission to post it.