San Antonio Express-News
August 15, 2005
Vote out lameness? What a Kinky notion
Rush Roberts
Special to the Express-News
Most of us are too young or too jaded to remember,
but politics used to be fun — before it became a business.
Politicians used to entertain and catch the attention of people because they had to actually talk to people to gain their vote.
Now with the magic of computers, radio and color television, we produce such bland personalities as Bob Graham and John Kerry as presidential candidates. Here at home, we have a guy in the Governor’s Mansion who makes Dan Rather look like Hunter Thompson.
Politics has become lame, and we’ve gotten stuck in the rut of thinking we can’t do anything about it.
Gone are the days of the charismatic candidate.
JFK was a playboy — and Catholic to boot — and people voted for him at the height of white-bread Cold War America because he was more personable than Nixon, though that’s not saying much.
The Longs were notoriously and openly crooked as hell, but Louisianans kept electing them governor because, by whatever methods they pleased, they dragged Louisiana into the 20th century ahead of the other Deep South states.
Now politicians groom themselves from preschool on, always watching what they say or do or where they go for fear of someday having it used against them in their pursuit of (insert high-profile political office here).
What happened to the guys who lived full-speed and held their cards out there for everyone to see? There used to be public servants who didn’t live in a constant fear of having some dark secret dragged up from the past because they’d already been honest enough to put it out there themselves.
Are there any such men left?
Probably not.
But I think the closest thing we can hope to see in the next couple decades is right here in Texas, and recently he visited San Antonio.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few months, you probably realize that getting "Kinky" now means something more than what we do in the privacy of our own homes, garages and gardens.
Yes, the former lead singer of the Texas Jewboys has thrown his hat in the ring for the governorship.
What does this mean?
Well, he needs around 50,000 signatures on a petition next spring to get on the ballot, and if you vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary, you can’t sign the petition.
But
he is shooting for 200,000 and could easily get more.
The saving grace of apathy is that is a breeding ground for new hope.
Texans seem to have gotten themselves in a rut. People keep voting Republican because they think it is en vogue, and the Democrats can’t get their act together to do anything about it. The likelihood of their fielding a strong candidate in 2006 is pretty slim, and if the big Republican money backs Rick Perry — which seems likely — then the odds of a third party making an impact on the election are pretty promising, especially if you have gotten fed up with one or both of the major parties.
Do we really want 10 years of utter mediocrity just because the guy happens to be friends with the president?
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to the Flying Saucer on a recent Wednesday afternoon, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Right when we walked in there were eager college kids, grizzled veterans of the music scene, tie-died cowboys, burly goateed bouncer-types, clean-cut middle-class WASPs, tattooed and camouflage-wearing girls, and then out of the corner table someone flagged us down, and it was some people we know — friends of my parents who are also the parents of one of my close friends. Recently retired educators, 50-somethings, my idea of normal, everyday people.
I did not expect to see them there, but they’d read about it in the paper, and the father had already bought a hat and a poster. We sat there talking, catching up, sipping on Spatens and Belhavens, and then, excited as a kid, he looked at me and said, "Wouldn’t it be great if we could beat the politicians at their own game?"
I looked around the place at the mix of people and felt the energy and the beginnings of something about to start moving, and I had to agree.
Yes, it would.
http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/news/detail.php?id=87
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10:15 a.m.....Emily Debra....7 Lbs. 10 Ozs....21" in length. She has a little dark hair...moves her lips and mouth so sweetly...has pretty petite features...thank you God!! 
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