Five Years Without Jack Kemp

It's hard to believe it's been five years. I remember hearing late in the evening on May 2, 2009 that Jack Kemp had passed away. I was out of town that weekend.

On Monday, May 4, I awoke to hear Bill Bennett Mornings playing loud and clear on my radio. I listened to guest after guest join Mr. Bennett to pay tribute to Jack Kemp as the week began. I was still somewhat groggy when Congressman Paul Ryan was on the show to remember Jack Kemp. I can remember that interview like it was yesterday. I remember Bill Bennett pointing out that Jack Kemp would note that Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, not The Poverty of Nations. Kemp wanted the focus to be on what worked, not on what failed. Solutions oriented folks operate that way.

Jack Kemp has been in my thoughts a lot lately. As I have gotten a little older and have started to realize that in politics many of the arguments never find resolution, I have been looking closely at some of the work Kemp did to improve the lives of the less fortunate.

Jack Kemp was compassionate, a bleeding heart conservative, and this may have been his greatest gift. Kemp was able to apply a humanitarian view to many of the problems that ailed society simply by showing up. Kemp spent countless hours in places modern Republicans rarely tread. Kemp believed in the American Dream, the belief that in America, every single person had the capacity to reach for the stars, and get there, if they simply wanted it and worked toward it. Kemp wanted a level playing field, rather than viewing America as red or blue and taking a "every man for himself" approach, Kemp wanted to make sure that being trapped was an option, not a predetermination.

I've written recently about Congressman Paul Ryan and Robert Woodson, founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. I won't rehash that work here, you can read it on your own if you like, but it's worth noting that Bob Woodson worked closely with Kemp, and in turn some twenty years later is working with Congressman Ryan as they both look to address some of the same issues on which Kemp had begun to work. Kemp is no longer with us, but that certainly does not mean his work does not continue.

Finally, Jack Kemp wanted economic growth. Serious, unlimited, no-holds-barred, through-the-roof, economic growth. He figured cutting taxes would spur entrepreneurs and development. Sure, he wasn't as worried about the deficit side of things, the logic of the day was, if you cut taxes and more people went to work, there would be more people paying in to the government till, and deficits would go down just by their nature. And we have to remember, Jack Kemp helped introduce tax cuts to the Republican platform, tax cuts were not always part of the Republican mantra. If you read a little history from the late 1970's, you'll see that Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp had some pretty fierce arguments about tax cuts. Kemp ultimately won the debate, Reagan adopted Kemponomics as Reaganomics, and the 1980's saw a great economic recovery. The rest is history.

Anyway, on the five year anniversary of Jack Kemp's passing, I wanted to add my two cents. It may be closer to fifteen cents, and you loyalists will get that and laugh. It's a hodgepodge of thoughts, but that's rather the point.

It's hard to believe it's been five years...

Outcry In The Barrio, Neighborhood Healers and a San Antonio Visit

I've written something that I won't post this website for a few weeks, but I wanted to make you aware of it now. Take a look: Outcry In The Barrio, Neighborhood Healers and a San Antonio Visit.

Rolling Stone Magazine Dumbs Us Down

Good grief. The war on our culture and our founding never stops. This is a blatantly obvious error, if it was in fact an error.

You'll notice Elaine Benes appears on the Rolling Stone cover with the United States Constitution on her back. And of course, the always distinguishable signature of John Hancock is on there. So, what's the problem, besides poor taste?

Welp, John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

April is Starbucks Global Month of Service

I'm not usually a fan of Starbucks' politics, but they do some good things in communities around the country, and the world for that matter.

I encourage you to visit Community.Starbucks.com and see if there is something going on near you where you can pitch in and help for a few hours.

Whew! It's Done!

Got that bad boy re-launched today. Took longer than anticipated, but it is done. Website complete. Logo is badass.

Ted Cruz: Stand for Principle

Seriously, if this doesn't get you fired up and ready to fight, you need to get to your doctor ASAP.

In NYC, Communism Wages War on Children, the Poor and Minorities

Communist New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is certainly blazing a path in New York City. Peggy Noonan has a revealing column in the Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal. (highlights are mine)

What a small and politically vicious man New York's new mayor is. Bill de Blasio doesn't like charter schools. They are too successful to be tolerated. Last week he announced he will drop the ax on three planned Success Academy schools. (You know Success Academy: It was chronicled in the film "Waiting for Superman." It's one of the charter schools the disadvantaged kids are desperate to get into.) Mr. de Blasio has also cut and redirected the entire allotment for charter facility funding from the city's capital budget. An official associated with a small, independent charter school in the South Bronx told me the decision will siphon money from his school's operations. He summed up his feelings with two words: "It's dispiriting." 

Some 70,000 of the city's one million students, most black or Hispanic, attend charter schools, mostly in poorer neighborhoods. Charter schools are privately run but largely publicly financed. Their teachers are not unionized. Their students usually outscore their counterparts at conventional public schools on state tests. Success Academy does particularly well. Last year 82% of its students passed citywide math exams. Citywide the figure was 30%.

Communists like de Blasio hate the poor, they kids and they hate minorities. Fortunately for the communists, in their efforts to keep people poor and under-educated, the kids, the poor and the minorities never realize what's going on.

This war on children via a war on education is appalling. But why do this? Well, here's why:

But the people who run the public-school system that doesn't work—the one where you can't fire teachers who sexually prey on students and principals who don't even show up for work, which is to say the public schools run by the city's huge and powerful teachers union—don't like the charter schools. And they are the mayor's supporters, a significant part of his base. 

The very existence of charter schools is an implicit rebuke to the public schools. It means they are not succeeding, and something new must be tried. That something new won't be perfect—no charter school is, and some are more imperfect than others—but people still line up to get into them. And there's something to the wisdom of crowds. When a school exists for the students, you can tell. When it exists for the unions, you can tell that too.

It's obvious to observers or participants in the debate over parental choice in education that the unions always care more about their constituency (the teachers) than the students.

In this move more than any so far, Mr. de Blasio shows signs he is what his critics warned he would be—a destructive force in the city of New York. When a man says he will raise taxes to achieve a program like pre-K education, and is quickly informed that that program can be achieved without raising taxes, and his answer is that he wants to raise taxes anyway, that man is an ideologue. 

And ideologues will sacrifice anything to their ideology. Even children.

Bingo! Mayor de Blasio is a loyal follower. There is no reasoning with him. Sadly, he was just elected, so unless there is a recall effort at some point, NYC, and the nation, will have to suffer under de Blasio's iron boot for four years until the next election.

In the meantime, my questions for Mayor de Blasion and his fellow Leftist travelers would be these: Why do you hate the poor? What do you hate Hispanic children? Why do you hate black children?