Joan Rivers was conservative?

First off, goodbye Joan Rivers.  While I wasn't a fan or a follower, I have seen a couple of short clips of her stand up act over the years and there is no doubt she was smart and that she could be very funny at times.  Also, anyone who works day in and day out like she did right up until the end has to command some kind of respect.  But what I did not know was that she was politically conservative.  Yeah, she would blast Obama on the stage but a good comedienne will do that to the sitting president regardless of political ties and leanings in order to please her audience of both left and right.  For me the default was to assume that anyone with ties to Hollywood was a liberal and then I would let any evidence that might cross my path either confirm or deny that assumption.

So I was surprised to find that she is actually a libertarian style conservative, at least according to Pat Boone.   The quotes of her that they used in the article are typical libertarian: let people do what they want as long as they pay for it themselves, let me work hard and keep the fruits of my labor, etc.  By the way, I write "libertarian style" conservative because Joan Rivers was not anti-gay.  She believed in letting people do what they want to do and then they could reap the benefits OR suffer the consequences of their own actions themselves.  That is true conservatism IMO, not trying to impose one's will on another person be it left or right.
 
What did not surprise me was that this kind of article came out just following her passing.  I mean, she's dead now.  Why bring up her political views at this point?  1-2 years ago I do not think the article would have been printed.  I think they would have focused on other things.

But the article is interesting in another way as well because just back in early July, Rivers had attended a gay wedding in NY the day before and an obviously gay reporter wanted to ask her about it.  The reporter quickly pushed past the affairs of the day to bring up the subject of whether we will ever have a gay president and Rivers' response was immediate, unhesitating and unexpected as you can watch for yourself here.  Note: IMO professional comedians do not begin walking away in the middle of delivering a joke.  They wait to see the impression they caused on the audience.  They are not in a hurry to end the joke and move on.

If you watched the clip you will see that Rivers said Obama is gay and that Michelle is a "tranny" (which can refer to either transgender or transvestite).  Clearly this was not a setup as the reporter seemed genuinely shocked by the statement.  After claiming that Obama is gay, Rivers went on to say "let's just calm down".  That again, is not the finish of a joke.  That is how a libertarian would handle it.  As in live and let live.  Then she clarifies what she meant by tranny by saying "a transgender... we all know.".  Again, she delivers the last half of this comment with her back turned to the camera which IMO is not how jokes are delivered.  And while she might not be in love with the idea, she concedes that "it's OK".  Again this is how a libertarian would look at things.  As a libertarian I am not against LGBT.  I do not think they should be discriminated against or legislated against.  Let them do what they want but leave me out of it because I am not for them either.  I don't think it's normal or sustainable but it's neither my job nor my right to do anything about it.

In the video, Rivers is walking pretty strongly, getting up stairs without help.  I hope I am that strong when I am 81!  Interesting that she died only ~1 month after outing Obama and Michelle like that (whether or not her statements were factual).  And during a "routine" surgery no less.  Well, I guess one opinion can be that there is no such thing as routine surgery, especially at her age.  But another opinion could be that as she was getting older she was getting less careful about what she would say in public.  We'll probably never know the truth about it but for the record the Internet is FULL of conspiracy theories about Michelle's body being mannish, long long before Rivers made her quips.

As a person who believes that too much political correctness is a societal disease I hereby wish Joan Rivers, queen of non-political correctness, Godspeed.