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Hollywood Republicans & Libertarians Coming Out Of The Closet
Hollywood Investigator ^ | December 30, 2002 | Hank Willow

Posted on 12/30/2002 6:42:12 AM PST by Commie Basher

Demonstrating that libertarianism has appeal in Hollywood, Ruprecht lists as out-of-the-closet libertarians: Kurt Russell, Penn and Teller, Clint Eastwood, Drew Carey, John Larroquette, Howard Stern (who briefly sought the LP ticket for NY guv), Tommy Chong ("Although he may be a one-issue type person."), P.J. O'Rourke, Russell Means, [TV movie producer] Aaron Russo, and possibly Bill Maher ("I used to enjoy [Politically Incorrect] at the beginning, but then it got so Left, it got so weighted heavily against ...").

Not all libertarians places a high value on attracting celebrities. One Region 63 attendee marveled that actors comment on political matters they know nothing about -- and that people take them seriously.

"Actors are not necessarily that smart," Ruprecht conceded. "It doesn't mean you're stupid, but you don't have to be smart to be a good actor or a good dancer. That people give [celebrities] any credence or any weight to what they have to say just because they're -- it just boggles my mind why anybody would listen to what I have to say."

Why does the right to own a gun trouble many otherwise libertarian celebrities? Explains Ruprecht: "It's an idealistic feeling that America would be a better country without guns. What doesn't cross over the synapse is that it ain't gonna happen. They're idealists, thinking we are gonna get rid of the guns -- and not that only the bad guys are gonna have guns. And [thinking] that we'll have a terrific country 'like England has' -- which is getting worse and worse."

After other attendees noted that many pro-gun control celebs, such as Steven Spielberg and Rosie O'Donnell, have guns or armed bodyguards, Ruprecht, reminding everyone that he'd been a lifelong Democrat, said: "That's the Democratic thing. They feel they know better how to live your life than you do.

(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodinvestigator.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: celebrities; davidruprecht; harrybrowne; hollywood; libertarianparty; libertarians; paxtv; showbiz; weirdal
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The full article explains that David Ruprecht is the host of PAX TV's "Supermarket Sweep." He was addressing California Libertarian Party Region 63. Ruprecht had also hosted Harry Browne's infomercial.
1 posted on 12/30/2002 6:42:12 AM PST by Commie Basher
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To: Commie Basher
I don't care how often or how loud Maher says it, he is NOT a libertarian.
2 posted on 12/30/2002 6:48:58 AM PST by Phantom Lord
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To: Commie Basher
"Supermarket Sweep!" That's how I knew Ruprecht's name.

I have Libertarian leanings in some areas but am not a card-carrying member. However, I've heard Bill Maher on TV and he doesn't seem like a Libertarian to me. It was a surprise to read that.
3 posted on 12/30/2002 6:52:16 AM PST by axel f
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To: Phantom Lord
You are correct...of course, Maher is the only person who calls Maher a libertarian.
4 posted on 12/30/2002 7:02:28 AM PST by Katya
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To: Phantom Lord
Several lefties I know have begun the process of intellectually washing their hands of the Democratic stains of the last 10 years by proclaiming their infatuation with the Libertarian ideals. This is consistent with the process of the dialectic and these pathogens are merely shifting hosts.

They will ooze all the right noise for issues such as the WOD and government intrusion (by this administration), but they become stricken with philosophical paralysis when items like gun ownership or reduction of government come up.

Libertarian ideology is convenient cover for communists under fire.

Do not, I repeat, do not accept any of these people as ideologically consistent allies because they proclaim the murky mantle of 'Libertarianism.' In Maher's case, I wouldn't consider his claims for Libertarian ideals to be anything more than jack-sh*t. He has clearly demonstrated his taste for leftist buttock.
5 posted on 12/30/2002 7:04:17 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth
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To: WorkingClassFilth
I was thinking the exact same thing you were, but not quite as lively. LOL!

And Olive Loaf is awesome!
6 posted on 12/30/2002 7:08:40 AM PST by axel f
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To: WorkingClassFilth
I think most Lefties would sooner seek cover under the Greens than under Libertarians. Even Maher has more recently embraced Nader over the LP.
7 posted on 12/30/2002 7:09:58 AM PST by Commie Basher
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To: Commie Basher
bump
8 posted on 12/30/2002 7:13:13 AM PST by VOA
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To: Commie Basher
There's a big range in there. Drew Carey is friends with Rush Limbaugh and gave him a cameo on his show. Maher is libertarian because it sounds like a cool thing for him to say. Penn and Teller may be libertarian, but their also the sort of atheists who get nasty about religion.

Now, if only these libertarian and conservative Hollywood types would start producing more libertarian and conservative movies and TV shows we might have something going.
9 posted on 12/30/2002 7:14:39 AM PST by Celtjew Libertarian
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To: Commie Basher
I am pretty sure that PJ O'Rourke, in one of his books, stated quite clearly that he does not consider himself to be a libertarian. Even (or maybe because of) his past history of drug-use and the fact that he now has children, he stated quite clearly, in his latest book "CEO of the Couch", that he is against drug legalization and, in all other aspects, considers himself to be a conservative Republican.
10 posted on 12/30/2002 7:14:48 AM PST by BlueLancer
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To: Commie Basher
The whole article.
Hollywood is not exclusively Democratic -- and Republicans and Libertarians are coming out of the closet!

That was the shocking claim of David Ruprecht, host of PAX-TV's Supermarket Sweep, at a dinner hosted by the California Libertarian Party's Region 63 -- an event exclusively covered by the Hollywood Investigator! -- and held at Bakers Square Restaurant in Pasadena, on the evening of December 11, 2002.

Ruprecht -- who recently taped the 1,000th episode of the 13 year's running Supermarket Sweep -- was invited to address CLP Region 63 because of his work on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne's 2000 campaign video, and because of his current involvement with the American Liberty Foundation.

Describing himself as a "baby libertarian," Ruprecht and his wife Patti (also in attendance) had been "lifelong Democrats" until the early 1990s, when, Ruprecht said, they realized that "the Democrats don't speak to us anymore." Over time, he discovered the Libertarian Party by listening to radio's Larry Elder -- and was eager to learn more when his commercial agent hesitantly approached him about hosting a "political infomercial" for Harry Browne. A thrilled Ruprecht shocked the agent by stating that he'd been thinking of joining the LP.

The agent replied: "Everybody in Hollywood is either Democratic or in the closet."

About the day he taped Browne's infomercial, Ruprecht gushes: "It was so cool! I could pepper him with questions [between takes]. He's very open. He's the nicest guy on the planet. He's really smart!"

Because of his TV fame, Ruprecht was asked to read the LP platform at their 2000 convention, for the benefit of the C-SPAN audience. "So I read the party platform, and I took my Democratic Party card -- which I'd had forever -- lifted it up, and I joined the LP right there [on national TV]."

* Hollywood Politics

About the time Ruprecht joined the LP, his wife became a Republican. "I don't think she's registered yet, but she votes Republican. It's so odd in Hollywood, when she'll come into a rehearsal, like, after Election Day in 2000. And she'll say, 'Yeah, I voted for Bush.' And they step back like she's got a ..."

Interjecting, Patti reminds him that, as she is a choreographer and director, she has jobs to offer -- so people don't step back.

"Yeah," Ruprecht concedes. "But they look at you... It's very odd."

Still, he believes Democrats are losing their monopoly on Hollywood, and mentions radio talk show host Al Rantel's newly founded Hollywood Republicans. "They're coming out of the closet," says Ruprecht, adding that he'd like to start a similar group for showbiz libertarians.

"When I'm talking to my friends, and I say I'm a Libertarian, maybe 10% will go: 'Oh yeah, I don't like the isolationism, I don't like the open borders' -- but 90% have no idea [what the LP stands for]. And when I start telling them, maybe they have a problem with the gun issue, but they'll go: 'Oh yeah, the government shouldn't be in your bedroom. The government shouldn't be in your womb. The government shouldn't be in your bank account as much as it is.'"

The LP's pro-gun rights position is a turn off to many showbiz folk, but Ruprecht doesn't see the gun issue as an insurmountable obstacle toward attracting more Hollywood members. "Not every Democrat believes in affirmative action. Not every Republican believes in [banning] abortion. I don't believe in every part of the LP. I think that's why Larry [Elder] keeps his libertarianism as a 'small l'."

Interjecting, Sandor Woren stated that Elder's primary reason for not joining the LP was "because he objects to the foreign policy of the LP, or the lack thereof." Woren then quoted Elder as personally telling him: "I'm violently against this pacifist, anti-war trend we have in this party."

Woren was the California LP's 2002 candidate for state assembly district #43.

Ruprecht admitted that after 9/11, Browne "was almost saying, it was kind of our fault, because we're meddling over there." But despite their differing interpretations of libertarianism, Ruprecht noted that Elder and Browne remain friends. "Both of them still cordial, and speak highly of each other."

Demonstrating that libertarianism has appeal in Hollywood, Ruprecht lists as out-of-the-closet libertarians: Kurt Russell, Penn and Teller, Clint Eastwood, Drew Carey, John Larroquette, Howard Stern (who briefly sought the LP ticket for NY guv), Tommy Chong ("Although he may be a one-issue type person."), P.J. O'Rourke, Russell Means, [TV movie producer] Aaron Russo, and possibly Bill Maher ("I used to enjoy [Politically Incorrect] at the beginning, but then it got so Left, it got so weighted heavily against ...").

Not all libertarians places a high value on attracting celebrities. One Region 63 attendee marveled that actors comment on political matters they know nothing about -- and that people take them seriously.

"Actors are not necessarily that smart," Ruprecht conceded. "It doesn't mean you're stupid, but you don't have to be smart to be a good actor or a good dancer. That people give [celebrities] any credence or any weight to what they have to say just because they're -- it just boggles my mind why anybody would listen to what I have to say."

Why does the right to own a gun trouble many otherwise libertarian celebrities? Explains Ruprecht: "It's an idealistic feeling that America would be a better country without guns. What doesn't cross over the synapse is that it ain't gonna happen. They're idealists, thinking we are gonna get rid of the guns -- and not that only the bad guys are gonna have guns. And [thinking] that we'll have a terrific country 'like England has' -- which is getting worse and worse."

After other attendees noted that many pro-gun control celebs, such as Steven Spielberg and Rosie O'Donnell, have guns or armed bodyguards, Ruprecht, reminding everyone that he'd been a lifelong Democrat, said: "That's the Democratic thing. They feel they know better how to live your life than you do.

"I joined the Rotary Club in Sierra Madre over a year ago. It's a natural outcropping of my libertarianism, because we don't need the government [to provide a safety net]. There are enough churches and synagogues and rotaries to pick up the slack.

"If the Rotary Club gets $1000 to work on an orphanage in Tijuana, $1500 goes down there, because we would chip in too. And you got Tijuana Rotarians down there telling us what they need and how to do it, and where to get the paint cheap. It's an international organization. So our $1500 probably goes $2000. But if the government got $1000 to work on an orphanage in Tijuana, by the time it filtered through the bureaucracy, it would be $200. And it would be misspent, because they wouldn't know what the hell they were doing.

In addition to his hosting duties, Ruprecht is an actor, having appeared on the Drew Carey Show in the role of a lunatic who thinks he's Larry King. "But we never got to talk about libertarianism," he says of Carey on the set. "He was too busy."

* American Liberty Foundation

Last August, Ruprecht joined the Board of Directors of the American Liberty Foundation, which, from his description, is the educational division of the LP. "I'm not sure of the exact connection. They're separate, but it is a wing. The point [of the ALF] is to get the message out. Too much of [libertarianism] is in books, or in esoteric or academic situations, and the American public is not getting the message. The goal [of the ALF] would be that every American doesn't go through a day without hearing the libertarian message some little bit, whether it's a radio ad, a TV ad, a newspaper ad, somebody talking about it on talk show.

"Even my Democratic left-wing friends, when I tell them what libertarianism is all about, they go: 'Well that makes sense.'"

To date, the ALF has produced three TV ads on the gun issue, which ran on CNN and Fox News. "The idea is that the Foundation is Procter & Gamble, and we have different lines of products. The first line of products that we brought out were the armed & secure lines. The next line may be the war on drugs, or social security, or the income tax.

"The libertarian idea is great, but people aren't getting it. People are not hearing it. They think of us as some fringe lunatic group."

Several Region 63 attendees noted that in 2000 many voters preferred Browne, but voted for Bush because they were "terrified of Al Gore" and "it was literally a survival issue" -- but that now Americans have reasons to be terrified of Bush.

"Not a dime's worth of difference," said Ruprecht. "That's Harry's line." [George Wallace is usually credited as having coined it. -- ed.]

* America's First Foreign War

In addition to his hosting and acting, Ruprecht is a writer. Hallmark is currently producing a script he co-wrote, as a miniseries. "It's called 'To The Shores Of Tripoli,'" says Ruprecht. "It's about America's first battle off its own shores, against Arabs and Barbary pirates." In 1804.

Ruprecht recently discussed his script over lunch with Browne. "I love listening to Harry talk. I feel like Aristotle at Plato's knees, because he's so smart, and he's so well read." The two men compared notes on the American government's history of manipulating events to push the nation into war. "The one I know more about is Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor not being as much of a surprise as we have always been led to believe that it was. Roosevelt did things to get us into World War 2, because he needed to get us into World War 2.

"Harry said that Lincoln did things to get us into the Civil War, because he needed to get us into the Civil War. World War 1 was the same way.

"[Harry] wanted to find out what Jefferson had done in this Tripolitan war, because it was our first war off our own shores -- and it's Jefferson who was the original libertarian. So I had done a lot of studying on Jefferson."

"To The Shores Of Tripoli" begins shooting in February 2003, in South Africa. "Tom Berenger was attached to it from the get-go," Ruprecht says. "This was an eight-year-old script."

Ruprecht closed by announcing that Browne wished for the members of Region 63 to know that he has a new book coming out in January 2004, in trade paperback. He also plans to update and re-release his older books from the 1970s and 1980s.


"That's the Democratic thing. They feel they know better how to live your life than you do.

Unfortunately that's increasingly a republican thing, too.

11 posted on 12/30/2002 7:19:11 AM PST by William Terrell
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To: BlueLancer
I bought O'Rourke's "Republican Party Reptile" a decade ago. It had ONE good article, about Hollywood culture. The rest was sophomoric and dull. His articles (many originally appearing in Rolling Stone) read as though he was trying to shock conservatives (and impress hipsters) by smirkily praising drunk driving, drugs, and talking dirty. A real bore.
12 posted on 12/30/2002 7:20:39 AM PST by Commie Basher
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To: William Terrell
FReepers should know, when you post the entire article, you miss the many hotlinks within the article.
13 posted on 12/30/2002 7:21:42 AM PST by Commie Basher
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To: Commie Basher
His articles (many originally appearing in Rolling Stone) read as though he was trying to shock conservatives (and impress hipsters) by smirkily praising drunk driving, drugs, and talking dirty. A real bore.

He got a lot better after that book. I can highly recommend Holidays In Hell (a travelogue spoof) and Parliment of Whores (subtitled A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire United States Government). Eat the Rich isn't as funny as the other two, but it gives a decent description of economics.

14 posted on 12/30/2002 7:22:52 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: Commie Basher
If RPR is the only one of his books that you've read, you really need to read more of his recent ones, particularly "Give War A Chance" and "Parliament of Whores". But then, again, it's entirely possible that I have a more sophomoric sense of humor than most and find his recent writings very entertaining.
15 posted on 12/30/2002 7:23:45 AM PST by BlueLancer
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To: Commie Basher

David Ruprecht

16 posted on 12/30/2002 7:24:05 AM PST by mhking
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To: Commie Basher
LOL! 'Tommy Chong may be a one-issue type of Libartarian'

That's like saying the Pope may be Catholic..

17 posted on 12/30/2002 7:25:59 AM PST by ewing
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To: Commie Basher
I can't get this thought out of my head when reading the article:

RUPRECHT

18 posted on 12/30/2002 7:29:50 AM PST by Chancellor Palpatine
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To: Celtjew Libertarian
Maher is libertarian because it sounds like a cool thing for him to say.

Bingo.
19 posted on 12/30/2002 7:31:52 AM PST by mr.pink
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To: Commie Basher
True, they would if they were consistent ideologically. They are, however, subversive liars that are ever seeking to gain tactical control of all fronts for their strategic ends.

Agreed, too, that the greens are red. No suprise there considering the history of the environmental movement versus the ideal of conservation.

20 posted on 12/30/2002 7:32:44 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth
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