{"id":2289306,"date":"2024-07-04T21:16:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T01:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kinky-friedman-1944-2024-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-07-04T21:20:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T01:20:34","slug":"kinky-friedman-1944-2024-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kinky-friedman-1944-2024-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinky Friedman, 1944-2024 &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkinky-friedman-1944-2024-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2289306&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This is an \u200carticle from the Washington Examiner about \u200bthe\u200c Obituary\u200b of Kinky Friedman, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 79. Friedman was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-please-pardon-jon-woods-a-victim-of-process-crimes-like-michael-flynn\/\" title=\"President Trump, Please Pardon Jon Woods, a Victim of Process Crimes Like Michael Flynn\">singer-songwriter<\/a>, man of letters, and \u200bserious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/argentina-peso-at-risk-of-another-devaluation-after-election-reuters-poll\/\" title=\"Argentina&#039;s peso vulnerable to further devaluation post-election: Reuters survey.\">political contender<\/a> known for his libertarianism. He ran \u200cfor governor in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial\u2062 election and garnered\u200d a significant portion of the vote. Friedman&#8217;s career included music, writing mystery \u200cnovels, and columns for Texas Monthly. His unconventional blend of humor and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-immigrant-from-hong-kong-fights-for-election-integrity-in-san-francisco-bay-area\/\" title=\"Democrat Immigrant From Hong Kong Fights For Election Integrity In SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA\">political activism made<\/a>\u2063 him\u2062 a unique figure in American politics and\u200d culture.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">\n<div class=\"tdb-search-form-inner\"><input class=\"tdb-head-search-form-input\" placeholder=\" \" type=\"text\" value name=\"s\" autocomplete=\"off\"><button class=\"wpb_button wpb_btn-inverse btn tdb-head-search-form-btn\" title=\"Search\" type=\"submit\"><span>Search<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Obituary<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Kinky Friedman, 1944-2024<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> <a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/author\/peter-tonguette\/\">Peter Tonguette<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2024-07-04T21:00:00-04:00\">July 4, 2024 9:00 pm<\/time><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>If someone were to put the populism of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Donald Trump<\/a>, the unreconstructed libertarianism of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ron-paul\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Ron Paul<\/a>, the midlevel star power of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jesse-ventura\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Jesse Ventura<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Texas<\/a> twang of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ross-perot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Ross Perot<\/a> into a blender, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine\/12953\/kinky-friedman-runs-for-governor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Kinky Friedman<\/a> might just have emerged.<\/p>\n<p>The singer-songwriter, man of letters, adopted son of the Lone Star State, and sort of serious political contender died on June 27 at the age of 79.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kinky Friedman. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Perplexed people looking for leading indicators of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/surrey-with-the-fringe-cast\/\" title=\"Surrey With the Fringe Cast\">present political moment<\/a> could do worse than to take a long hard look at the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. That year, incumbent Republican Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/rick-perry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Rick Perry<\/a> faced formidable challenges from not only Democratic contender Chris Bell but independent candidates Carole Keeton Strayhorn and the already world-famous Friedman. <\/p>\n<p>Born in Chicago in 1944 to psychologist Thomas Friedman and his wife, Minnie, Richard Samet Friedman (as he was then known) likely had little conscious memory of his hometown: While he was a very small child, his parents, who were Jewish, pulled up stakes for the Texas Hill Country. There, they established a 266-acre camp for children called Echo Hill Ranch, which continues to operate to the present day. He spoke of his upbringing with sincere appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>Perry managed to remain in residence at the Texas Governor\u2019s Mansion, but Strayhorn and Friedman, between them, amassed 30.5% of the vote. And, in a larger, more profound way, the don\u2019t-give-a-damn outsider politics of Friedman have utterly supplanted the play-it-safe insider politics of Perry and his ilk. Can anyone doubt that Friedman, had he somehow captured the governorship and felt compelled to make a quixotic White House run, would have fared better than the notoriously bad presidential aspirant Perry later did? <\/p>\n<p>Long before he gave American electoral politics a welcome kick in the pants, Kinky Friedman had fashioned a career out of giving American pieties and platitudes a fulsome ribbing. In his capacity as a cheeky, intentionally offensive country-rock singer-songwriter, Friedman sent up both his times and his chosen genre. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was bar mitzvahed in Houston and went to Hebrew school,\u201d Friedman said in a 2012 interview with journalist Simon Marks. \u201cI was raised as a Jew in Texas, even though people on the East Coast don\u2019t think that\u2019s possible.\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing to grow up in a minority. \u2026 It also makes a good artist or author to be on the outside looking in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Friedman did stints at the University of Texas, from which he received a bachelor\u2019s degree in 1966, and in the Peace Corps. Then he found an artistic outlet for his naturally acerbic personality: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/feud-escalates-between-country-legend-and-rude-reporter-ends-in-10k-anti-biden-bet\/\" title=\"Feud Escalates Between Country Legend and Rude Reporter, Ends in K Anti-Biden Bet\">country music<\/a> that was sometimes poetic, frequently profane, and surprisingly popular. In his heyday in the 1970s, Friedman brought his ingratiating manner, Western garb, and appealing voice to tunes with titles like \u201cArsehole from El Paso\u201d and \u201cGet Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,\u201d the latter of which included lines undoubtedly conceived with the sole intention of inciting vitriol from feminists: \u201cBefore you make your weekly visit to the shrink\/ You\u2019d better occupy the kitchen\/ Liberate the sink.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This sort of thing might be expected to have a short half-life, and by the 1980s, Friedman had begun the process of diversifying his repertoire. He became an unlikely specialist in quasi-comic, semi-autobiographical mystery novels, including <em>Greenwich Killing Time <\/em>(1986), <em>Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola <\/em>(1993), and <em>Armadillos and Old Lace <\/em>(1994), and his views on modern life were given unfiltered expression in a column for <em>Texas Monthly<\/em>. As much as Fran Lebowitz, Friedman became less known for any single work of art, literary or otherwise, than for incarnating a certain disaffected comic persona.<\/p>\n<p>It was this attitude of cynical comic candor that Friedman brought to his 2006 gubernatorial campaign, which melded actual policy notions (an inimitably Texas-style stew that included legalizing marijuana and beefing up border security) with the more general aim of underscoring, through his presence, the weaknesses of the politicians around him. During a debate with his fellow candidates, Friedman defined \u201cpolitics\u201d this way: \u201c\u2018Poli\u2019 means more than one [and] \u2018ticks\u2019 are blood-sucking parasites,\u201d he said. And, defending his outre language in past public utterances, he said, \u201cIf you ain\u2019t offending somebody, you ain\u2019t getting anything done.\u201d That Perry\u2019s rejoinder to Friedman, something about how \u201cwords matter,\u201d sounds so lame is a sign of how Friedman-style bluntness has become the coin of the realm.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yet his pugnaciousness and political incorrectness should not constitute his entire legacy: Entirely unfaked was his devotion to maintaining his parents\u2019 camp, which focused on serving children of military personnel who had lost their lives, and to his dogs, one of whom he named Winston Randolph Spencer Churchill Friedman. (Entirely unfaked, too, was his admiration, frequently repeated, for the greatest of all British prime ministers.)<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, when he was promoting his new album, <em>The Loneliest Man I Ever Met<\/em>, I had the fun fortune of interviewing Friedman by phone. His politics were, as ever, ecumenical. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind voting for, of the group, Ben Carson, Trump, and Bernie Sanders,\u201d he told me back then. \u201cYou\u2019ve got three men who I know are not corrupt.\u201d Other than that, though, he was not optimistic. \u201cThey\u2019re the Crips and the Bloods, the Republicans and Democrats,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I like my idea of limiting all elected officials to two terms: one in office and one in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Peter Tonguette is a contributing writer to the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><a class=\"tdb-logo-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" title=\"Washington Examiner\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-img-wrap\"><\/span><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-logo-text-title\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kinky Friedman, a singer-songwriter and political contender known for his blend of populism, libertarianism, and Texas twang, passed away at the age of 79. His unconventional approach to politics in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election challenged traditional insiders like Rick Perry and highlighted the appeal of outsider politics. Friedman&#8217;s career as a country-rock musician and author of mystery novels showcased his irreverent and satirical style. Despite his controversial language and blunt demeanor, Friedman was also known for his dedication to charitable causes and his love for his dogs. In a 2015 interview, he expressed skepticism about the political landscape and advocated for term limits for elected officials<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2289307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Obit_Kinky_070924-1024x720.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33965,33964,32076],"class_list":["post-2289306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-1944-2024","tag-kinky-friedman","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Obit_Kinky_070924-1024x720.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2289307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}