Actor Rob Lowe: People Should Be Less Dependent on Government, 'More Responsible for Their Own Lives'

Speaking to Meet the Press moderator David Gregory for NBC's web-based program Press Pass on Sunday, usually liberal actor Rob Lowe expressed a more conservative political perspective: "Just my own world view is that the individual needs to be more responsible for their own lives and that's not the conversation we're having right now, for whatever reason." [Listen to the audio [1]]

Lowe was discussing his role as President Kennedy in the new documentary Killing Kennedy and used JFK to make his point: "Kennedy's 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country'...today I think that's – our discussion is the inverse. People are asking, 'What can our government do for us?'"

This is not the first time Lowe has expressed sympathy for conservatism. Appearing on FNC's Hannity in 2011, Lowe declared that those on the political right based their beliefs on "logic." [2]

Here is a transcript of the exchange aired on local Washington D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-4 on November 10:

11:37AM ET

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DAVID GREGORY: What gets you worked up about our politics today? Which is really – as somebody who covers it day-in and day-out – it's in a really polarized place and a place where we're really struggling to negotiate the idea of what government can and should do well and effectively versus where it should get out of the way. I think that's one of the big struggles of the Obama presidency.

ROB LOWE: I think it's – somebody asked me today, Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." And I say it's so interesting because today I think that's – our discussion is the inverse. People are asking, "What can our government do for us?" And just my own world view is that the individual needs to be more responsible for their own lives and that's not the conversation we're having right now, for whatever reason.

But you know, people say it's divisive, and it is certainly. And that it feels like it's broken and stagnant, and it is certainly. My guess is if you went to 17 different times in our history, people would say the same thing.

GREGORY: Sure.

LOWE: And I feel like this is just a natural part in the process that will produce a new type of leader and everybody will be thrilled, which is not to say that our leaders today are bad at all. I'm not in any way saying that.

GREGORY: Do you like – are you active? Do you like to be active in politics?

LOWE: It sort of depends. I mean, I've had, you know, times in my life where I've been very, very active for people. But I also feel in a way that behind the scenes sometimes and more privately, you can be more effective than being public. So I sort of vacillate depending on the person, the time, the issue, and sort of where I am at in my own life.

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