November 2009 / vol. 6 issue 3
| What are we going to do with all the TAKS tests once it's abolished? Illustration by mac hird |
Friedman of Choice
Kinky Friedman is gunning for governor
If you weren’t keeping up with the last Texas gubernatorial race, aren’t interested in this one, or just happen not to know who Kinky Friedman is, then you’re in luck. From the name alone, Kinky sounds to be some sort of clownish character from an antiquated children’s show, but in reality he is a returning gubernatorial candidate with a distinctive background, a progressive outlook, and a fresh take on the political and social landscape of our state.
Kinky’s first bid for the governorship was in 2006, and to many it seemed to be more a joke than an actual bid because of the colorful nature of his campaign and his character. However, Kinky’s unique approach to politics, particularly that of the office of governor, struck a chord with many Texans, garnering “The Original Jewish Cowboy” 546,000 votes. That might not seem like much (Kinky came in 4th in the 2006 election), but that election also had another popular independent candidate as well as a somewhat popular Democratic nominee splitting up the vote across numerous ideological spectra.
This year, Kinky came back onto the scene by officially announcing his candidacy for the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election, this time under the blue banner of the Dems. Although the Democratic candidate has yet to be determined, Kinky has by far the most popular recognition as well as the most strongly established base of supporters compared to the other two candidates seeking the position (Hank Gilbert and Tom Schieffer).
Now, onto the real question: Why should anyone care? The election is still a year away, and, unlike the Republican nomination, there aren’t any other big contenders for the Democratic spot. It’s important to understand what a Kinky governorship could mean for Texas.
Anyone who has attended a Texas public school can attest that the entire experience can be a frustrating, unrewarding, less than educational venture. That isn’t news, and it hasn’t changed in quite some time. Unfortunately, our current governor seems to have no real ambition to improve the system, aside from taxing strip clubs to better fund our K-12 education (really!).
As proof of the policy’s efficacy, Texas has the highest drop-out rate of any state in the union. With a system set up with no goal other than to get kids to select the proper A-D choice on the TAKS test and teachers given no other incentive but to teach Texas’s youngsters which choice to circle, it comes as no surprise. Texas’s schools have little educational promise. Without some real meaning behind what we teach school children, we can’t really expect them to care. Kinky wants to fix all that.
One of his biggest issues with education (that teachers only teach to the TAKS test) will be directly addressed by his first main goal: He simply wants to abolish the TAKS. That way, teachers will not be restricted to spending all of their time preparing students for an exam that offers them little real educational value.
Also, Kinky wants to bring back some of the state spending that has been disappearing from our public schools over the past several years in the form of a $3,000 a year increase in teachers’ salaries. That will incentivize more highly educated individuals to step up to the task of teaching Texas’s youth.
Two of Kinky’s other major issues fall into the category of crime: marijuana and murder. First off, he recognizes that all of the numerous individuals in Texas’s prison system due to marijuana possession or other pot-related crimes are doing little more than eating up taxpayer dollars for a crime that no more deserves jail time than smoking a couple cigarettes.
While Kinky has not expressed any support for full-out legalization of marijuana, he does support its decriminalization, if for no other reason than to ease the strain on Texas’s full prisons and jails and clear out space for the people he sees as the real crooks — “like the pedophiles and the politicians.”
Also in that vein, Kinky wants to completely revisit the way Texas handles capital punishment. It’s no secret that, as a state, Texas executes more people than just about anywhere else with fair public elections, and this has been viewed with more and more scrutiny over the past few years.
Most notable and recent is the case of a man convicted of burning his house down and thereby murdering his 3 young daughters in 1991. The case has caused considerable noise in the media, since nine fire experts have come forward proclaiming that no real evidence of arson ever actually existed and that the man was convicted unjustly.
While that case has been brought up again in Texas courts, even though the convicted was executed, it raises serious questions about whether a system of capital punishment that may be murdering innocent individuals is viable.
Kinky proposes that, unless we have a system that can perfectly declare guilt with no room for error, then we sure as hell shouldn’t support “the wrong guy getting executed” system. A change of that magnitude could effectively reshape the way Texas handles high-profile criminal cases in the future.
Hopefully, this article has turned you on to Kinky. If it has, find out more about him, see if he’s what you’re all about. If he is, then give him your vote in the primary; Texas and Kinky could use it. If not, then support whoever loses the Republican primary and inevitably runs on an independent platform. Texas and Kinky could use that too. 
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