Jack Kemp & exceptions to their rules

I’m late on this but wanted to share my thoughts regardless.

I remember the recently-deceased Jack Kempas a Vice-Presidential candidate but not as a Buffalo congressman (even then I was too young to form any meaningful opinion on his politics). It’s been interesting to hear about his career and his role in shaping the Republican party now that he’s died and everyone’s talking about him. The common theme to the mainstream coverage is that Jack was a uniter, a Republican who cared about making the party more diverse. From the LA Times:

In many ways Kemp was ahead of his time in Republican circles, calling for the party to embrace all races and ethnicities and pushing for inclusion of blacks, Latinos and Jews.

“He was viewed very much as not only the carrier of supply-side economics, going back to the Reagan days, but he was really the guy who always talked about the ‘big tent,’ ” Feulner said Saturday.

I’m sure some of the fawning is overboard but after reading a letter from Kemp to his grandchildren posted on Buffalo Pundit, it does appear that the Congressman was sincere in his desire for more inclusion. Whether or not his policy choices reflected that desire is another story, and one that Bruce Fisher has tackled better than I ever could over at Artvoice.

Anyway, this brings me to the memory that all the Jack Kemp coverage reminded me of in the first place: Late last year I joined PUSH Buffalo in an anti-poverty march throughout downtown. The event highlighted PUSH’s success at getting Mayor Brown to commit to 500 housing rehabsover five years (to compliment his original 5-in-5 demolition-only plan) and, like most demonstrations, carried a couple extras messages from its participants: a call for people-centered policy, better education and work opportunities, etc. It was respectful and calm as we marched from Lafayette Square to the Mahoney State Building to the Federal Building.

As we marched away from the Federal building en masse, we passed the Erie County Republican Party headquarters on Delaware Avenue. Approaching their ground level windows, I could see that three blond women were watching the parade of participants and, as I got closer, I realized that they were shouting at us through the glass. They pressed McCain/Palin signs to the window (fine, whatever) and mouthed the word “freaks.” More offensive than that though, they lifted their middle fingers and flicked us off (yeah, not ok).

This was an anti-poverty march. Not a pro-Democrat or pro-choice or pro-anything-super-controversial march. Why flick us off and call us freaks? Why not prove some of us wrong and cheer us on because hey, poverty sucks. And better education is great, jobs too. It left such a sour taste in my mouth and really challenged my policy of not engaging in “f-ck you” type responses.

When I heard Cokie Roberts on NPR talking about Jack Kemp’s openness and sincere fear that the Republican party was alienating people of color, I remembered that march and the response from the local Republicans and I thought, ick. I don’t think the Democratic party is perfect by any stretch but shit, I wish that Jack Kemp’s message of inclusion wasn’t such a story because I think it means that it’s more of an exception than a rule. And that’s sad.