Off The Grid: Vince Vaughn the Libertarian

Vince Vaughn is usually saying something funny, unless you ask him his thoughts about politics. Here's 5 things you probably didn't know about this popular actor and comedian:

• He considers himself Libertarian: I would use the term libertarian to describe my politics. I like the principles of the Constitution and the republic, which is a form of government built around the law. A republic did very well in Rome until they got a lot of central power and Caesar decided he knew what was best for everyone. That type of government works if you’re looking to start welfare programs, if you’re going to conquer the world and use force a certain way. But even back then, it didn’t work. More and more people went on the dole and others went bankrupt, and businesses couldn’t afford to pay their staff.
• He's against the NSA and the Patriot Act: The Patriot Act? Let’s get rid of it. Undeclared wars, doing away with personal liberties—let’s understand how that has worked out historically to see that it has led to some horrible things. Once our personal liberties are gone, when an American citizen can be pulled out of his house and detained for six months without a trial, where is our country? Once those rights are gone, how do you get them back? Once the government is allowed to listen to you, how do you get that privacy back?
• He's a fan of Ron Paul's politics: Ron Paul woke a lot of people up to the fact that government can’t handle everything for you. Once you start playing that game, where does it stop? I like the way it was until 1913 [when the 16th Amendment was ratified, legalizing a federal income tax], when locally you had sales taxes and property taxes. That seems ethical to me, because I can move to a different neighborhood or area if I like the services they provide. To this day, your police department and your fire department are paid for with local taxes, and that makes sense, because you might use those. But the federal government looking into your books to decide what to take from you, that feels wrong.
• Edward Snowden is a hero: Edward Snowden is a hero. I like what he did. My idea of treason is that you sell secrets to the enemy. He gave information to the American people. Snowden didn't take information for money or dogmas. Governments claim to write endless laws to protect us, a law for this, a law for that, but are they working? I don't think so. The consequences are that there is a staggering loss of freedom for the individual. I look at the drug wars and they are absolutely f***ing ridiculous. There is a black market and the prisons are overcrowded and it's not preventing drug use. There's a corruption that goes all the way to the top.
• He's for the Second Amendment: I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don't have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It's not about duck hunting; it's about the ability of the individual. It's the same reason we have freedom of speech. It's well known that the greatest defense against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back. All these gun shootings that have gone down in America since 1950, only one or maybe two have happened in non-gun-free zones. Take mass shootings. They've only happened in places that don't allow guns. These people are sick in the head and aregoing to kill innocent people. They are looking to slaughter defenseless human beings. They do not want confrontation. In all of our schools it is illegal to have guns on campus, so again and again these guys go and shoot up these f***ing schools because they know there are no guns there. They are monsters killing six-year-olds.

Quotes taken from Playboy Magazine and GQ