Yeah — there’s a slightly sardonic intention — but with a point here.
Think about it — if you had Tom Hanks on the ballot next to both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, how do you think that vote split would go?
Yeah — you’d likely get the standard 23% die-hard Trump folks, and the similar number of super-establishment Biden folks… but I think Tom Hanks would get over 50% in that messy matchup, even if he didn’t campaign.
And if he just ran as the Democratic candidate — it would certainly be absurd… but oddly enough, I think it would be several times more practical for the net outcome than an establishment candidate like we’ve had with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, or a ‘polarizing’ candidate like Bernie Sanders.
What we’ve been missing since the Bill Clinton and the Barrack Obama eras has been that rockstar candidate.
What would be interesting is… in the same way that Republicans greatest triumph has been with ‘fake’ Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump — people literally playing successful idea men… if we might use that same concept writ large on the Democratic side.
The idea isn’t finding the perfect candidate as you’d usually search and primary around— but the candidate that can best call on America to elect them, and bring the other party members with in greater numbers than would otherwise be possible.
Perhaps not the wisest path, to be sure — but completely in line with what has been maximized in these past few decades in terms of voter choice in the end.
Just as a thought experiment, it’s a nice thought.