Michigan Rep. Neil Friske Arrest Shows Hypocrisy of 'Traditional Values' Politicians
In Friske’s case, the apple didn’t fall far from the ultra-right tree
It is a heuristic of American politics that those who raise their voices loudest in defense of “traditional American values” or a retrograde “sexual morality” have a better than average chance of themselves being enmeshed in some sort of sex scandal. Examples of this rule in action include televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who hired sex workers, Sen. Larry Craig, who was arrested while cruising for sex in an airport men’s room, and Moms for Liberty honcho Bridget Ziegler, whose husband was accused of sexual assault against a woman he and Bridget had a threesome with. I did not put down any markers betting that Neil Friske, state representative for Charlevoix, would fall into this category, although given his recent arrest, it seems like I should have.
Before he was elected, Friske apparently attended Donald Trump’s attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. After his swearing in, he joined the House’s hard-right Freedom Caucus, a group focused on “traditional conservative values and individual liberty.” As a member, Friske called for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, sponsoring bills that would punish “sanctuary cities” and preempt any local ordinances that would block police officers from asking a person’s immigration status. He opposed Gov. Whitmer’s Newcomer Rental Subsidy for refugees and similar migrants, with the specious argument that the subsidy encourages illegal immigration. In February, after a trip to the Mexican border, he held a press conference with three other House Republicans calling on the National Guard to be deployed to guard the border. At the conference, Rep. Carrara warned of “dangerous people” coming across.
Friske voted against banning the discredited and harmful practice of conversion therapy in Michigan. He released a statement that read, “To criminalize social workers for simply upholding natural law and refusing to buy into the new age left-wing gender schemes is outrageous!” Friske further charged his fellow House members with hypocrisy given that they did not support his bill banishing “obscene” library material to a restricted section. Friske complained, “When I enrolled a bill to protect kids from traumatizing obscenity, the Democrats and their allies drug my name all the way through the mud, but now they’re going to keep pushing this woke ideology on kids and claim it’s for their own protection?” Michigan author Jillian Manning argued that Friske’s real purpose was less about protecting children and more about controlling them. “It’s about telling young people what they can and cannot read,” Manning wrote. “It’s about using librarians’ limited resources — and your taxpayer dollars — to relocate these books to a restricted section and then requiring them to police that space.”
Despite all the blather about protecting children, Friske was one of five House Republicans to vote against banning child marriage in the state.
State Rep. Marshawn Maddock, another vote against the ban, couldn’t help but tie his opposition with anti-trans bigotry. He complained to Newsweek, “Elementary schools can talk to our kids all day about trans-sexualization but high-school sweethearts can't consider marriage now.” On the subject of marriage, when the House voted to close a loophole in Michigan’s law against marital rape, Friske opposed it, calling the vote “a publicity stunt by the Democrats.” In yet another vote that belies his claims about protecting the vulnerable from sexual predation, Friske was one of two votes against banning “deepfake” pornography without a person’s consent. While not standing up for children or victims of deepfake pornography, the representative from Charlevoix has found time to condemn Attorney General Nessl’s prosecution of pro-Trump fake electors. He claims the prosecutions are “USSR-style persecution.”
Although none of us is responsible for the politics of our parents, in Friske’s case, the apple didn’t fall far from the ultra-right tree. His father, Richard Friske, was also politically active in Michigan. What drove him to politics? The 1968 Presidential campaign of segregationist George Wallace. This sympathy for bigotry goes back even further as the elder Friske was a pilot for the Nazi Luftwaffe during World War II. Richard Friske was a devoted member of the conspiratorial John Birch Society and won a surprise victory for a state House seat. After his one term in the House spent pushing bills to sterilize welfare recipients, the elder Friske remained politically active. He made a few failed attempts at running for Congress on Wallace’s American Independent Party ticket. In 1999, he donated $1,000 to ex-KKK Grand Wizard and former Neo-Nazi David Duke’s unsuccessful campaign for Congress.
Leaving Richard behind, his son was arrested early in the morning on June 20th in Lansing. Police were called after hearing reports of a man with a gun and “possible shots that were fired.” An adult dancer from the Deja Vu gentleman’s club called to say that Friske threatened her with a gun and attempted to sexually assault her. Lansing Police have asked for charges of sexual assault, assault and a weapons offense to be brought against Friske. For his part, Friske claimed on a conservative talk radio show that he was being framed by his political enemies, including fellow Republican Parker Fairbairn, who is running against him in the GOP primary. Fairbairn ridiculed the claims that he was a part of a “deep state” conspiracy, focusing his ire on Friske’s votes on child marriage, marital rape and deepfake pornography.
It’s entirely possible that Friske survives this scandal and maintains his seat in Lansing, but it should end once and for all his claims of being a spokesman for traditional values and individual liberty, if his record in office hasn’t done so already.
It was not a drag queen or an LGBTQ+ teacher that police arrested in Lansing, but a proud, conservative Christian. When Rep. Carrara spoke of “dangerous people,” he could have found an example much closer to home, in the man standing beside him.
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