FYI, most of the old Traveller stuff has been reprinted by a company called Far Futures in large bound books. Steve Jackson Games produces the Traveller setting using their GURPS rules, giving the game a bit of a renaissance. Supposedly Marc Miller is working on a 5th edition of Traveller after the 4th Edition crashed and burned (bad editing, art that didn't seem to fit, etc.). (For those wondering, there was Classic Traveller [CT], MegaTraveller [MT], Traveller: The New Era [TNE], Marc Miller's Traveller [T4], GURPS Traveller, and even a d20 [D&D-type rules] version of Traveller [T20])
I always got the impression that GDW leaned politically right or at least libertarian. Was that your sense (you don't have to name specific names)? Steve Jackson Games tends to be somewhat libertarian, too. The left coast game companies, on the other hand, are pretty liberal. You might find this Salon article interesting. I presume your days at GDW were nothing like that!