Kinky Friedman Quotes

The national security state controls the President. It controls most of the executive departments.

If you are the executive, you're probably going to have more of an impact than if you're one of a hundred members of the Senate, certainly one of 435 members of the House.

To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust.

The man at the center [Donald Trump], soon to be the world's most powerful, now shoulders the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans, the fear and anxiety of millions more.

Every White House I have covered since Reagan, when I got here, power has been more concentrated in the White House than the one before.

Political power means the capacity to regulate national life through national representatives.

A President's unofficial or non-presidential actions do not affect millions of people.

It is not the function of the leader of government business to discipline members of the executive.

My mother once used to be a Congress leader.

It would be my goal for Palin to become Oprah and be the ultimate kingmaker for twenty-odd years.

Being President is a little like being the grounds-keeper at a cemetery: there's plenty of people below you but no one's listening.

Right now we're in a special and powerful position, because the world is having a spiritual awakening.

Donald Trump, yes, he's somebody's little boy. But he is his ideas because his ideas are what's going to affect us. As a man, he can do very little. But his ideas could kill us all.

The only person who counts in the administration is the president of the United States.

Men in high levels of government seldom surf.

Sometimes the difference between two candidates is an important one in the immediate sense, and then I believe trying to get somebody into office, who is a little better, who is less dangerous, is understandable. But never forgetting that no matter who gets into office, the crucial question is not who is in office, but what kind of social movement do you have. Because if you have a powerful social movement, it doesn't matter who is in office.

When the party holds the White House, all the political decisions are made in the White House. And being a party chair, you're just an artifact.

The establishment? Well, guess what? Donald Trump now is the establishment. His primary opponents, many of them are interviewing for White House gigs.

Rulers do not like to admit that their power is restricted by any laws other than those of physics and biology. They never ascribe their failures and frustrations to the violation of economic law.

Sovereignty is easily preserved by the very arts by which it was originally created. When, however, energy has given place to indifference, and temperance and justice to passion and arrogance, then as the morals change so changes fortune.

Nothing had excited me-the huge cars, the entourages, the bodyguards, the policeman jumping to attention, all meant nothing to me ... till I came to the old man's office. (On becoming prime minister)

If I were the American President I would rather be popular than have the power the destroy the world because however many puppets they have all over the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and so on - they haven't got support from the people.

One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.

Oh, if only I could be President and Congress, too, just for ten minutes.

The presidency does not yield to definition. Like the glory of a morning sunrise, it can be experienced.