Can we get an endorsement from Penn & Teller?

[TechnoGuyRob]

I love those guys, and they're outspoken libertarians...

What do you guys think?

 

[QWE]

hmmm, I don't know, there used to be a discussion group for the show with fellow libertarians/fans/sometimes P&T themselves, but I forgot where that group was...

 

[Zarxrax]

They need to do an episode of Bull**** about how the mainstream media tries to select the candidates for us

 

[TechnoGuyRob]

They need to do an episode of Bull**** about how the mainstream media tries to select the candidates for us

That's brilliant!

 

[TurtleBurger]

They may do more harm than good. Penn and Teller have made a habit of alienating religious people, and to get them too involved in the campaign could cost the critical religious conservative votes.

 

[stones88]

penn doesn't endorse candidates. when he had a radio show, kinky friedman was a guest and even though penn obviously wanted kinky to win he declined to endorse him.

 

[syborius]

boy, you guys are thick. penn/teller will "never" support ron paul... not in a million years.

 

[andrewgreve]

I love those guys, and they're outspoken libertarians...

What do you guys think?

I've heard Penn say on his show before that libertarianism is, "a bit too fascist" for him, and that he is more of an anarcho-capitalist. I fear he might be one of the anarchists who doesn't understand the importance of the Paul campaign, otherwise we would have heard him supporting Paul already. I'd love to hear if someone does call in to his show and ask his thoughts about RP.

 

[Karsten]

boy, you guys are thick. penn/teller will "never" support ron paul... not in a million years.

Why wouldn't they? They're strongly libertarian.

 

[andrewgreve]

Why wouldn't they? They're strongly libertarian.

My hypothesis is that Penn (don't know about Teller), as an anarchist, does not believe in political campaigns of any sort.

As an anarchist myself, I understand and agree with that sentiment. However, the Paul campaign is about much more than running for an office. There is an amazing opportunity inherent in the campaign to spread the ideas of freedom. Some anarchists are resistant to engaging in the Paul campaign because they think they would necessarily be telling people to support the state and democracy (two things that anarchists are opposed to). This is not necessarily true, of course. Personally, I don't advocate those things, but I still am able to be a productive RP revolutionary.

 

[Karsten]

They may do more harm than good. Penn and Teller have made a habit of alienating religious people, and to get them too involved in the campaign could cost the critical religious conservative votes.

Actually, I question the idea that Ron Paul needs to rally the conservative Christian base. If you watched the Values Voter Debate, you will see that he disagreed with the religious right in many ways. We did a poll in this site a month or so ago asking people's religious affiliation, and there were quite a lot of atheists. If you look at Ron Paul's polling from New Hampshire, he is 10% among moderates, and much smaller among the hard-right "conservatives". I think Ron Paul's base is a mixture of libertarians like myself and people who used to be fed up with the whole system before Ron Paul came along.

 

[ACJohn]

I vote for Tommy Chong

Other names maybe:
http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities.html

 

[Hook]

penn doesn't endorse candidates. when he had a radio show, kinky friedman was a guest and even though penn obviously wanted kinky to win he declined to endorse him.

Well, they are both members of the Libertarian party and senior fellows at the Cato institute. Plus they endorsed Badnarik.

 

[Flirple]

They would certainly be all for Ron Paul. The only apprehensions they might have is disagreements on the Abortion issue (but with agreement that it is a state issue not federal) and maybe not wanting to be associated with the same candidate that the "911 Lier" crowd is supporting since they have spent a lot of time debunking conspiracy theories.

And yes they are staunch atheists (as am I) but also have the highest regard for the free market of ideas. They did support Michael Badnarik and Kinky Friedman (who is not even very libertarian).

On his radio show Penn often articulated his philosophy about voting. He thinks it is good to never vote unless there is a candidate you really believe in. By not voting you effectively stay off the Radar of the major party election campaign "experts". That way, when that one candidate comes along that is the real deal, the masses can come out of the woodwork to vote for them and and steal the election (a la Jesse Ventura) before any of the "experts" even understand what is happening. The Ron Paul Revolution is the perfect embodiment of what Penn has always been talking about.

I suspect you will see Penn saying very positive things about Ron Paul if he does any media interviews (he goes on Glenn Beck from time-to time) in the future.

 

[uncle saddam]

Visit the Showtime contact page and click the 'Ask a Question' tab.

http://showtime.custhelp.com/

Seems to be the only/most legitimate link I can find for contact.