Tom Sawyer was one of the many artists who ghosted for Al Capp on the Li'l Abner newspaper strip over the years. He tells of those days in this article — and I was especially struck (though unsurprised) by this paragraph…
Al Capp turned out to be one very entertaining guy. As expected, major funny, brilliantly politically aware, and commercially, brilliant. This last evidenced, especially, in that Al, a lifelong Liberal, and JFK fan, who lived in Cambridge and socialized with the Kennedys, the Schlesingers and others of the Best and the Brightest, had discovered that on the lecture-circuit at that time there was no longer any money in being a Leftie. So Al Capp became, arbitrarily, an articulate and of course witty spokesperson for the far-Right. He never believed a word of what he said, but the demand for his services as a speaker increased dramatically, and his fees jumped from $3,000 to $10,000.
Based on watching Capp for a long time (and meeting him a grand total of once), I don't doubt he made that turn for cash and attention. But it sure seems that at some point, he began to believe his own bull.
Of greater interest to me is that Capp seems to have been a pioneer. I think there are a lot of people around today who espouse right-wing dogma because that seems to be where the money is. Oh, if only Al could have gotten a royalty from those who've followed in his wooden-legged footsteps.