Kinky Friedman’s independent politics: Unique Jewish take on 2016

JNS.org editor-in-chief Jacob Kamaras interviewed singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman for an article about Friedman’s upcoming participating in a benefit concert for a historic Texas synagogue. The outspoken former gubernatorial candidate quickly turned the conversation to politics.

“Jews in America have a decision to make” in the 2016 presidential election, explains the Jewish musician with a provocative nickname — derived from the non-provocative origin of his curly hair — and provocative album titles like “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore.”

“I don’t think the Democrats have treated Israel very well,” Friedman said, describing himself as a “Democrat most of my life, and definitely now an independent at best, and maybe a Republican.”

JNS: So who are you backing in the presidential election?

Kinky Friedman: I don’t know. Anybody would be better than what we’ve got. What we’ve got is Forrest Gump, and nobody could see it coming because we elected him kind of in an “American Idol” type of situation. … Obama campaigned as an agent of change and yet, ironically, he seems incapable of any change himself. So he’s hardly gone a millimeter from the time he came into office. … I think I support Bernie because I want to see a Jeeeeeeeeeeeeew in the White House. [That isn’t a typo on “Jew,” that’s exactly how Kinky said it.] If he wins, it’ll be the first time a Jewish family ever moved into a place a black family moved out of.

[How can] Jews could still be supporting Obama? … They’ve got to know that out of all the brutal dictatorships that exist in the Middle East, there’s about 23 of them, we’ve tried to execute regime change in only one country in the Middle East. That is Israel. We actively attempted regime change [during the 2015 Israeli election]. That’s why you have [Syrian President Bashar] Assad in power and on and on and on.

What do you think about the nuclear deal with Iran?