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Pro Gun Kurt Russell Calls Out Bill Maher For Being A Fake Libertarian

By Robert Jonathan
Published on: 11:18 PST, Dec 28, 2015

Kurt Russell, a self-described hardcore libertarian and gun rights advocate, considers his friend Bill Maher a “faux libertarian.”

The Real Time host has in the past referred to himself as a libertarian, but Maher generally supports (including with his cash) Obama and virtually the entire Democrat/liberal agenda, although he has admitted to owning guns because of home invasions in his wealthy Hollywood enclave. This didn’t stop Maher from describing the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, as “bulls**t,” however.

With an emphasis on personal freedom, a libertarian is perhaps kind of like a Republican on steroids who really believes in limited government, although this characterization might be an oversimplification.

U.S. Senator (and presidential candidate, for now) Rand Paul is a libertarian-leaning Republican who is, for example, a foe of unlimited warrantless NSA spying or most governmental interventions into the private behavior of law-abiding citizens and opposes deploying U.S troops abroad unless it is vital to the country’s national security.

The publicly (until recently) apolitical Russell is currently making the media rounds while promoting the new Quentin Tarantino movie The Hateful Eight, which opened on Christmas Day.

Earlier this month, in a contentious exchange with a gun control-obsessed reporter from Hollywood Elsewhere, Russell famously accused the reporter of being insane and out of his mind if he thought that gun control would change the mind of any terrorist (or by extension, street criminals).

The star subsequently told the Daily Mail that “Sure I believe in the right to bear arms, as guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the American constitution.”

In the aftermath of the San Bernardino terrorist attack and other mass shootings, “Now is not a good time to lay down your weapons — how will you protect yourself? I am a libertarian, a hardcore one, and of course I have guns. I shoot things with them. I hunt game,” Goldie Hawn’s life partner added.

Parenthetically, as The Inquisitr previously reported, some of the Hollywood celebrities who are vocal gun control advocates have made a fortune appearing in movies that feature a significant amount of gun play.

In a subsequent interview with The Daily Beast, Russell disclosed that — like many people — he prefers to generally keep his political views private, with such discussions, if any, restricted to his circle of friends. Over the years, he admitted that he has felt socially ostracized from his Hollywood peers because of his views, but that he sticks to his guns, figuratively speaking.

“I’ve heard some pretty rough things through the years that were really undeserved, but the number one thing was my case was worse, because I couldn’t say, ‘I’m a Republican, sorry.’ I wasn’t a Republican, I was worse: I was a hardcore libertarian. I’m not a Bill Maher libertarian. That’s faux-libertarianism. He doesn’t know what it is. I like him, and he’s a nice guy, but seriously, that’s not libertarianism. The other thing I’ve found is that a lot of liberals in Hollywood are faux-liberals, and a lot of Republicans in Hollywood are faux-conservatives. When I was a young guy, I was finding myself not quite being able to see the things that were going on and buy into a political culture. I didn’t know what to do, so I finally said, ‘Why don’t I go back and see what the Founding Fathers were all about, and see how that stacked up.’ Well, I found them and I found libertarianism. They were pretty radical guys, and damn smart, and I just believe in that old-time stuff and think they had great ideas.”

Russell also revealed that he has declined offers from Bill Maher and other cable hosts to go on their shows to talk politics.

The star of such classic films like Escape from New York, Tombstone and John Carpenter’s The Thing also noted that he attended the 20th anniversary of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, which cemented his views. “I felt, guess what, there is a place where I can have a conversation and not be laughed at or smirked at.”

Summarizing his philosophy, Russell explained that “I believe in limited Constitutional government, free market capitalism, reach for the brass ring. There’s this place where you can go do that and don’t step on anybody’s toes and still try to reach for the brass ring.”

Reading off a question from a file card handed to her by a producer, about a week ago The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked Kurt Russell about the gun control thing.

Russell claimed that the agenda-driven Hollywood Elsewhere interviewer “slightly ambushed” him with the question/accusation about the gun culture and bemoaned the fact the debate over gun control can’t remain civil and that people are often unable to agree to disagree.

“The last thing thing I like to watch is entertainers or actors get political. It’s just something I can’t stand watching. Having said that, I was asked to put it in context somehow with this movie. My personal feeling is that there is a big difference and reality. Fantasyland is what we do…in reality, when we’re dealing with things like, terrorism, whatnot, we’re all going to have different opinions on how to do it–how to deal with it. Mine happens to be that, I think there’s a very strong reason the Founding Fathers had for the Second Amendment. And that is that no government ever hasn’t had to fight its own people, and its own people hasn’t had to fight its own government. We had our civil war. If that Second Amendment hadn’t been there, those people wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do what they considered defending their life, their way, their style of living. So I agree with that. I think that’s an important part of our existence. It’s basically that simple.”

Do you agree or disagree with Kurt Russell’s views on gun control and gun rights?

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtSDgkWVL0M

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