Reflecting on the unfortunate pattern in a recent conversation with IndieWire, Offerman characterized Ron as “a wonderful creation from much more brilliant minds than my own” who people “hold up for the wrong reasons, and take their own reading of this true Libertarian who was cool with everybody.”
“They somehow say, ‘Well, he had a shotgun, so he must be one of us,'” the actor continued. When confronted with this argument, Offerman said he generally refers back to Parks And Recreation creator Mike Schur, who had the following to say on the matter: “‘Swanson would’ve despised Trump, because Ron loved capitalism. And Trump made the stupidest move you could make as a capitalist, which is to go into public service.'”
“He would think he’s an absolute idiot,” Offerman continued, now in his own words. “He would also despise him because he’s disrespectful to women and many others. And that’s just an example of all the people and value sets that Ron would despise, because Ron is a good person.”
Despite his entrenched beliefs, Offerman has played multiple characters whose ideals lean further right than his own, including the president in Alex Garland’s Civil War and sovereign citizen Jerry Kane in Christian Swegal’s Sovereign, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. “I don’t seek out anything in this particular wheelhouse… I don’t know the answer to [why people continue to want to see me in this] because I’m not the discerning eye choosing me,” he said. “But I do know that I’m grateful to be given the opportunity, because the mistakes of our civilization are so frustrating on a daily basis… And so I feel like, if somehow because I played Ron Swanson, I can bring eyeballs to a project that wouldn’t necessarily otherwise be there, maybe just slowly, that’s part of the erosion of the bigotry in this country.”
