Why Jack Kemp matters

By Sean Duffy In tributes since he succumbed to cancer last week, Jack Kemp has been rightfully called a statesman, patriot and visionary. The architect of a key pillar of the Reagan Revolution. But, as I look back at powerful and memorable encounters with him over the years, I remember boundless energy, constant searching for new ideas and new converts, and most of all, one hell of a guy.

Jack (and it was always "Jack", not "Congressman", or "Mr. Secretary"), preached the gospel of true hope, and the politics of the open door. He believed in the power of individuals to change and improve their lives and saw government as one partner in helping spark real opportunity, family by family.

Kemp's open door and enthusiasm for the future was, and is, a political magnet that helped sparked Republican growth and success. But some liberal observers in recent days have mistook the positive, welcoming philosophy for an absence of governing principles, or an "anything goes" view of public policy.

If you believe that, you don't know Jack.

There is a difference between a big tent with flaps, and a roof and structure, and a big tarp - a shapeless covering. To Jack, there was a right and wrong to how the American economy was to be organized, and the role government played in it.

The first time I met Jack was in 1996, when he was running for vice president. I was working for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge doing media relations on education issues. Kemp and Bob Dole brought their campaign to Chester, an economically struggling, largely African-American community that was the home of a wide range of education reforms aimed at empowering families. Two aspects of the day still paint a vivid picture, nearly 13 years later.

First, black men and women sought out Kemp, as he did them. In Jack, they saw a leader - and a Republican - who sincerely and personally wanted them to succeed. And he offered a vision not of more of the paternalistic government programs that had already done damage to communities like Chester.

Instead, Jack's gospel was that of a helping hand that you must grasp to, in Theodore Roosevelt's phrase "make your life." Kemp believed that whether is was choosing a better school for your kids, owning your own home or starting a small business, government must open the door and give you the chance, but you must seize it. That's real freedom.

The second aspect I remember is his energy. At that visit - and I suspect throughout much of that ill-fated campaign - he seemed like a caged tiger, pacing back and forth, ready to get out.

He was standing next to me during a typical campaign small-group meeting for an elite group of supporters, and he kept saying under his breath, "Let's go. Let's go. Let's get outta here." He wanted to get outside to the rally of working-class folks with whom Republicans hadn't closed the deal yet.

When I came to Colorado to join Gov. Bill Owens" administration, I had the chance to be with Jack several times at meetings and retreats for groups he was involved with, most notably Empower America. Each time, his boundless energy, curiosity and passion for ideas was infectious.

In what was consistently a fire hose of words and ideas, he always had a new book to recommend, a new innovative thinker or emerging leader to tout, a new project to discuss. Most of all, he made us understand that in every one of God's children there exists the potential for a bright, independent and successful future.

Like many conservatives who came of age during the Reagan years, I owe much of my optimistic belief in the future to Jack Kemp, the evangelist of empowerment. He shaped my view of what it means to be a Republican who can offer real, substantive hope and opportunity to Americans, particularly to those at the bottom of the ladder.

Not every Kemp position was right or perfect. But, in the main, his ideas and his memory should provide the GOP with a real, relevant roadmap back to power. In Kemp there is a positive, practical antidote to the currently fashionable but ultimately fatally flawed wave of "government as savior" policies.

America, and particularly the Republican Party, needs more Jack Kemps. And today we miss his energy, solid ideas and infectious hope for the future. I know I do.

Sean Duffy (sean@thekenneygroup.com) is a principal at a Denver public relations firm and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Bill Owens from 2001-2005.

Useful idiots & how not to be one

The term “useful idiots” was attributed to Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin describing intellectual idealists persuaded to adopt communism. Later after a fait accompli, with their idealism supremely disappointed and dangerously reactive, they would of course have to be eliminated. Wikipedia explains how Lenin’s, “‘useful idiots of the West,’ described Western reporters and travelers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West.”

From www.usefulidiots.com , the question, “Why This Web Site?”: "Useful idiots is a name no group of people would like to be called. It is however, what most Americans are relied upon to be by the powers that be. When the voting segment ... allows itself to fall for the same old word games and mind manipulation, it sadly earns the title of useful idiots ... too many Americans are naive about their political ‘system’ and its politicians ... America is a land of plenty. Plenty of food, plenty of money, plenty of gods, plenty of corrupt politicians and alas, plenty of useful idiots that repetitively vote for them.”

From five million Coloradans, 65 House and 35 Senate members emerge to serve public office in the Legislature. They take an oath to support the Colorado and U. S. Constitutions. This is their only required oath -- not to their constituents, the government, their political party, nor the citizens, voters and taxpayers of Colorado, not even to their families or themselves. Just to the rich heritage, words, meaning, expression, majesty and magnificence of those documents.

Question: How many elected officials have read both documents, before or after entering office? The oath presumes familiarity with, understanding of, and a full, recent read and determination to honor them. Otherwise it’s easier to create, cultivate and control “useful idiots.”

Officeholders are prote cted in this ignorance. Those who voted them into office too are “useful idiots.” They have little familiarity, interest or knowledge of those documents whose power is to contain and control only the government, not the people.

Once public officials, they are in intimate contact with “the system” – elected colleagues, special interests, partisan political parties, government bureaucracy and employees, bond dealers, lobbyists and friends of same, and far removed from those who sent them there. The Legislature meets for 120 days creating legislation presumably to make Colorado a better place. However, officeholders’ limited political, economic, business, financial, constitutional and governmental acumen put them at the mercy of the true, long-term professionals, well-paid, who know how to manipulate people, opinions, legislative bills and votes.

With accompanying “spotlight and applause,” many of these “useful idiots” can be persuaded to perform in ways anathema to what they otherwise would want done, or perhaps more importantly, not done. They sponsor, sign on to, or support bills that on their face violate their oath of office and the Constitution.

Examples of the Useful Idiot Dodge (UID) are abundant. Colorado’s executive, legislative and judicial branches too often misapply, misinterpret or ignore the Constitution when it threatens their agenda or very existence. Good job, “useful idiots,” on the following:

** “FASTER” legislation politically morphed an in-fact tax increase into an automobile fee increase, to obtain more revenue, and avoid submitting it to the electorate, in compliance with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution.

** The General Assembly could have put on the ballot a gasoline tax increase, but no. Instead, this UID was an intentional end-run around TABOR, depriving taxpayers of their power to accept or reject this tax increase.

** The general assembly enacted a mill levy freeze to increase tax revenue to the schools, to provide the general fund more money to spend, again without a vote of the people, a UID for a billion dollars over the next ten years.

** Boisterous assault on TABOR, with a power-hungry and derelict Democratic Majority in the House, Senate, Supreme Court and Governorship. The next TABOR-forbidden UID target, is the 1 992 Bird-Arveschoug six percent growth limit to the General Fund, conservatively interpreted and highly respected for 17 years, is now being plundered to allow for easier, less confined state spending.

** The current target is to throw Colorado’s nine electoral votes into a consensus pool of other states, making null and void the Founder’s concepts. The 222-years-old Electoral College was crafted to protect the small versus big states. Requiring a consortium of states to support one national candidate/party is a UID that shrinks the power of Colorado voters. Is there no limit?

William Shakespeare said in Julius Caesar, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” That’s the tragic tale of today’s “useful idiots.” While in office they are conned into legislative actions that are long-term anathema to what their Founders and Freedom Documents, their children, grandchildren, even themselves; and unborn, unrepresented generations in the future would want. But once in, laws stay. Good job, “useful idiots.”

Conversely, realization is how legislators can get beyond being “useful idiots.” They first realize the Founders created a system of limited government and self-governing people, that government is to protect the people's rights and property, that its financial impact was not to overspend, overtax or over borrow, that its Founding document, the Constitution, was meant to control the government, not the people. When the people put in place an amendment to the Constitution, it is not up to the legislators to flail it to oblivion, but to respect and abide by it. Inconvenient, frustrating or difficult? Deal with it.

How can one avoid becoming or being an elected official or citizen “useful idiot?” Six steps:

1. Read, understand, know, preserve and protect America’s and Colorado’s Freedom Documents--Declaration of Independence, Constitutions and their incredibly important Bills of Rights. Lesson: Master the basics, the fundamentals of a successful society.

2. Build your knowledge and understanding of history’s fundamentals -- its ideas, philosophies, ideals, events and actors, heroes and villains. “Who knows only his own generation remains always a child,” is chiseled on a building at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Lesson: Grow up.

3: Read. Watch. Listen. Think. Understand. Lesson: Get and stay informed.

4. Quit being a civics dropout, constitutional illiterate or citizen slug. America’s Republic (not “Democracy”) is not a spectator sport. Lesson: Become aware, interested, informed, concerned, involved and active in what is going on.

5. Share your information, knowledge and concern. America’s educational system leaves too much out. On many talk shows I told listeners too many Americans are “dumbed down, numbed up, tuned out and turned off.” We need to turn them back on, to a country and future of Freedom and destiny. Lesson: Share true personal Freedom and political Liberty.

Sixth: Seeing a “useful idiot” committing a UID, pounce on it. Lesson: It’s up to you.

President George Washington said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

Louis D. Brandeis said, “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men (and women) of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Nobel Laureate Economist Dr. Milton Friedman, “Our problem is not ignorance. It’s what we know that’s not so.”

Note: The term “useful idiot” is not meant in any way to disparage, deprecate, defame, denigrate or demean the word “idiot.”

How relevant are Tea Parties to GOP?

What next? The Tea Party movement is simply not going to be co-opted by the Republican Party. It's not a creation thereof, and it'ssimply not made for the kind of team politics required by any political party.

In order to benefit from the movement, the Republicans will have to earn their trust, and prove that they mean to live by what we say are our foundational principles - smaller government, lower taxes, more personal liberty. The Republicans can benefit from the movement, but they can neither control nor direct it.

In any event, the next elections are over 18 months away, the next nomination assemblies almost a year out. What can the movement accomplish in the meantime?

This is a movement tailor-made for the initiative process. To push initiatives that clarify for an intentionally myopic State Supreme Court that TABOR means what it says; that retain our control over an initiative process whose purpose is to rein in the legislature; that reassert our state's prerogatives as a sovereign entity, not merely an administrative district for the federal government.

This answer will make Republicans uncomfortable, since by definition, it doesn't involve getting them elected. But it does involve teaching these newly-created activists how to organize for action, getting them savvy about the political process, and creating results that will get them taken seriously by those who matter right now. It's a valuable tool in the maturation process of a movement that should be the party's natural allies in showing - again - that our ideas, when present free of personal political ambition,win.

It's one reason why the Democrats - even now - are plotting to make the initiative process, the one process in state government they don't control - subject to as much rule-bound litigation as possible. They are co-opting Republican goodwill in cleaning up potential fraud, spinning it as a mutual belief that the citizenry needs to be brought under control.

At the end of the day, Republicans have enough institutional staying-power to be there when the movement has matured. Libertarians are simply not going to get elected to anything, although libertarian-leaning Republicans can. The party may have to wait to reap the benefits of this movement, and certain team members may find themselves uncomfortable with certain agenda items they have to sign onto. News flash: not all Democrats are socialists, although that's the agenda of the party.

Too many Republican office-holders and office-seekers will be unhappy with this answer. But if the party tries and fails to control the movement, it will be seen as irrelevant and meddling. If it tries and succeeds, it will only strangle the baby in the cradle. Colorado has one of the most open and welcoming citizen initiative processes in the country, for the time being. Let's make the best use of it for our ideas, and if we deserve it, the elected offices and day-to-day governance will come our way.

Don't miss Tea Parties 4/15

Tax, spend, borrow and regulate are the four horsemen of American socialism under Obama and Ritter. Intrusive government now tramples our liberties with a brazenness that would amaze those old Boston patriots who dumped the tea in '73. Tea Party protests will happen in many cities on Tax Day, Wed. April 15. I'll be taking part and so should you. Here's the information you need. Denver Metro Area City: Denver When: April 15, 12:00pm - 1:30pm Where: West steps of the Capitol, 200 East Colfax

El Paso County City: Colorado Springs When: April 15, 12:00pm - 1:30pm Where: Acacia Park at 225 N Nevada

Routt County City: Steamboat Springs When: April 15, 12 noon Where: County Courthouse Lawn

Mesa County City: Grand Junction When: April 15, 12:00pm - 1:30pm Where: Soccer stadium at 12th Street and North Avenue, corner across from Mesa State College

Larimer County City: Fort Collins When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Where: Fort Collins City Hall, 300 Laporte Avenue

City: Loveland When: April 15, 4:00pm - 7:00pm Where: 205 E Eisenhower Blvd, Loveland, CO 80537

Weld County City: Greeley When: April 18, 11am – 2pm Where: Bittersweet Park at 35th Ave. and 11th St.

Pueblo County City: Pueblo When: April 15, 4:00 pm Where: Pueblo County Courthouse, 215 W. 10th St.

Fremont County City: Cañon City When: April 11, 12:00 pm Where: Veterans Park

Contact names for these and other Colorado cities, along with Tea Party details for many other states and cities, are at this link. To sort by state, scroll to the bottom of that page. Site also lists numerous organizers and contacts for the three events mentioned above.

The Tea Party phenomenon of 2009 is one of the most powerful grassroots movements our country has seen in a long time. People are rising up to defend individual freedom, personal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.

Be part of it on April 15! I'll see you there.

This Republican is fighting mad

After the shellacking Republicans took from Democrats in 2008, many are asking themselves what happened and what do we do next. The “what happened” was eight years of a lackluster president who enacted the surge about two and half years too late, surrendered on the public relations front, and abandoned the conservative principle of small government while joining the Republican controlled Congress in a frenzy of (then) unprecedented deficit spending. As for what we do next, some are beginning to outline a strategy for the coming years. My friend and fellow blogger Dana at Common Sense Political Thought had this to say: Newt Gingrich-style guerrilla conservatism sounds about right to me! Our friends on the left gave President Bush no peace, no room, made no attempt to give the man a chance. They hated him for his win in 2000, and hated him even more in 2004. In the end, they got him in the 2006 elections, and finished the job tonight. While we ought to be politer than the left, we should still follow their lead, and give Mr Obama no peace, and no room to maneuver, as little freedom of action as possible.

We won’t win all of the battles, and probably will lose far more than we win. But when Bill Clinton, who ran as a moderate, took a hard left turn in 1993 and 1994, guerrilla conservatism spanked him hard in 1994; that’s what we need to try again.

When it comes to taxes, we must hound the next president on his promises, promises we already know he will break. When it comes to spending, we must hound him on busting the budget.

Lying down and playing dead is not an option. Conservatives will have to become the insurgents on this political battlefield for the next few years. The RINO’s have scattered, defected, or are actively compromising to save their own political skins, the Bushites have been routed, and the most vocal of the neocons have been discredited. Those members of the GOP who decided to act and spend like drunken Democrats deserve no place of leadership and probably don’t have the courage to stand up to Obama to begin with. The hard work of freedom therefore by default once again falls onto the shoulders of the true conservatives to stand up for what is right; to stand up for traditional morals and values and principle without apology and regardless of criticism, personal attacks and the ebbs and flows of the political landscape and “popular opinion”.

f the Big government, principle compromising, country club types are allowed to continue to run the Republican Party it will only suffer disaster after disaster until the United States is effectively a one party state with only a token opposition. That is the ultimate goal of Obama and the Left. Those who have declared a “paradigm shift” in American politics realize that the US is not far from that now and will stay that way unless and until conservatives move quickly and decisively to reclaim the Republican Party and the moral high ground.

The Democratic Party has successfully purged themselves of moderates and true centrists and perhaps the Republican Party should purge itself of the squishy, rudderless elements who have governed so poorly in the past. The Republican Party disintegrates and loses elections when it wanders from the straight and narrow path of free enterprise, traditional morals and values, small government, lower taxes, and personal restraint and responsibility. The temptations of power seems to have an amazingly corrosive effect on the political party in power, and during the first six years of the Bush administration the Republicans could not resist gorging themselves at the public trough and overplaying their hand both domestically and internationally.

The Republican party is far more successful as an opposition party as the most driven, the most committed and most conservative of their ranks rise to the occasion and rally to the defense of the Shining City on the Hill. The Left has now elected a President that has deep ties to cultural and ethnocentric radicalism and it would be irresponsible, and nothing but self-destructive appeasement, to not vigorously oppose any and every forthcoming policy that violates the fundamental principles of Conservatism, traditional values and common sense. The current occupant of the white house believes that he needs to “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution.” It would be irresponsible for the political opposition to appease that demand.

The choice and duty here is clear and the Republic needs its defenders now more than ever. Defeatism is already raising its ugly head among certain elements of the Right and the Republican party but such knee jerk, defeatist reactions accomplish nothing constructive and only serve to undermine the common sense conservative/ leave me alone movement. One can blindly acquiesce and surrender to the coming Liberal Nanny State or a campaign of sabotage can be launched before it gets off the ground.

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States should not be seen as the end of the ideological and cultural wars for the heart and soul of America, but as the beginning. The 2008 election may have been a victory on one hand, but it should not be construed as surrender on the other. It is always darkest before the dawn, but if conservatives don’t fight now the conservative movement, and a meaningful Republican party, will indeed be condemned to the ashbin of history. The Left will not be content to relish their victory but will instead embark on a program of “perpetual revolution” socially, economically and ideologically. We are witnessing the fruition of the nearly complete Liberal domination of education and academia, the media, and Hollywood. It was inevitable that given enough time they would eventually completely conquer the state as well.

You can’t be a nice guy when your enemy has no scruples. The Founders explicitly warned against turning the Republic into a mob-ruled Democracy yet that is how the US is now being governed.

Already the Left is beginning to prepare for the conservative backlash. And I believe that conservatives must make every effort to not disappoint them. Norman Lear has warned about “an invigorated right-wing grassroots, media and organizational infrastructure”. It remains to be seen if he is right and if his fear will be viewed as a call to action by those who still believe in fighting for the Republic. The Left thinks it has managed to create a paradigm shift in American politics. Whether that is true remains to be seen.

As for the Republican Party, if it doesn’t end cross-over voting in the early primaries then it doesn’t matter what else happens. Having Democrats and liberals have a role in picking your presidential nominee is ridiculous and must never be allowed to happen again. Diluting Conservatism is a continued recipe for disaster.

Conservatives must seize control of the Republican Party, not just be one of the factions. The pundits call the Right “the base” of the Republican Party but “the base” doesn’t control the party. Conservatives are intent on rectifying that now. Those who have sold the party and its principles out have led that same party into the twilight land of the “loyal opposition” that controls little and exerts even less influence that it did during the dark days following the fall of Nixon. Those responsible for the political disaster of the last few years should be held accountable for their actions, or lack thereof, and themselves condemned to the ashbin of history.

Unless the Republican Party can rediscover its conservative soul, it may effectively be doomed to extinction. Tony Blankley sums it up well: “Conservatism always has been and always will be a force to reckon with because it most closely approximates the reality of the human condition, based, as it is, on the cumulative judgment and experience of a people. It is the heir, not the apostate, to the accumulated wisdom, morality and faith of the people. … Our challenge is not to retreat to the comfort of self-congratulatory exile but to sweat and bleed – and be victorious – in the arena of public opinion.” Fight David Huntwork is a conservative activist and freelance columnist in Northern Colorado, where he lives with his wife and three young daughters. He is currently working on his first book titled "No Apologies: In Defense of the Conservative Ideology." You may view his bio and past columns at http://DavidHuntwork.tripod.com.