Very few obituaries in the mainstream media may emphasize the real impact of this man, not only on conservative political ideology, but also on the nation as a whole.  The news reports will undoubtedly refer to the greatness of Jack Kemp as a quarterback, his stellar Congressional career and stint as housing secretary, his selection as a 1996 vice presidential candidate, and maybe even his successful record of outreach to minorities and the poor.

What may be missed is that Kemp is among only a very small group of individuals that successfully carried free market principles and conservative political thought forward in this nation in the years between the 1950s of William F. Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale” and the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s.

Kemp was not just an inspiration to many in the “lean conservative years” of the 1970s, ultimately he was a principle architect of the Reagan presidency itself and the economic cornerstone of the conservative movement.  The unparalleled success of supply-side economics would only be overshadowed by an unrestrained Congress spending more than the increased revenues that lower taxes did indeed bring, and would only be denied by a media elite that could not – or did not care to – understand the concepts.

Kemp’s 1979 book "An American Renaissance" impacted me personally at a time I was just beginning to see the light; it was my political epiphiny.  That book may have changed me, but Jack Kemp changed the nation.

I hadn’t thought of that title in so many years, until tonight.  With his passing, it becomes so clear that what we really need in this nation is strong, principled and compassionate leadership like Jack Kemp’s.  What we truly need is another American Renaissance.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.