Former Football Star Jack Kemp Fights Cancer

Jack Kemp , the former Republican 1996 vice presidential nominee , and past Republican Presidential nominee has disclosed today that he has cancer . This blog is not a memoriam ,it is a tribute to a conservative with a heart. Some Republicans have never felt comfortable in situations with minorities or the working class. Jack Kemp broke the mold in Republican circles .

Perhaps it was because of his working class background , perhaps it was because of his years playing in professional football . Kemp was an All star for the Buffalo Bills during the 1960's. Football as the national pastime,has a way of bringing all cultures and people together. Kemp felt comfortable in his political skin as a Republican . Kemp after his football career was over, ran for Congress and was elected to represent the people of Buffalo from 1971-1983.

Kemp's political philosophy was more attuned than anyone else in the Republican party to inner city concerns . Although liberal on many social issues,he was also known as a fiscal conservative.Kemp was a supply-side economics champion,along with Congressman William V. Roth, Jr. they proposed tax-cutting legislation during the Reagan era.
In 1988 Kemp ran for president to succeed Ronald Reagan. The eventual winner , President George H.W. Bush appointed him to be Secretary of Housing Urban Development. Kemp championed public housing tenant ownership and supporting enacting enterprise zones .Those two causes if properly and adequately supported and funded can alleviate urban blight as we know it today.
In 1996 Senator Robert Dole chose Jack Kemp to be his vice presidential nominee. Kemp outshone Dole on the ticket , with many wishing that Kemp was the nominee . It was ultimately Kemp's progressive Republicanism that made Repulicans support more conservative presidential candidates. Kemp did not pass the conservative litmus test ,he supported the NAACP , the Martin Luther King Holiday , and affirmative action. Ultimately Jack Kemp's celebrity much like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Collin Powell made Republicans accept him as a Republican.