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Daniel B. Miller's avatar

Some friends and I were discussing this and we came to the conclusion that going forward, presidential candidates need to be already famous as a performer of some sort. Like Zelensky. Like Reagan. Like Trump. You don't shoot a big-budget movie with unknown actors. You need star power.

Possibilities:

* Al Franken (but he shot his wad)

* John Stuart ( too lefty?)

* Steven Colbert

* Neil DeGrasse Tyson

* George Clooney

* Taylor Swift

* Steph Curry

* Dwayne Johnson

* Matt Damon

* Leonardo DiCaprio (too short?)

* Queen Latifah

You get the idea. Question is, why would any of these celebs put themselves through a meat grinder when they already have great careers? Has to be because they love the US and are willing to put themselves on the chopping block.

Thoughts?

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Jérémie Lumbroso's avatar

The belief that a President needs to be a leading actor in a movie, comes from living in a country in which the media covers everything like a reality show.

I can't tell if you are being serious or ironic, but if it's the former, please understand that we're in a crisis: It's sort of like how everybody was downloading music back in the era of Napster, before the move to the streaming model — and the industry was crashing. It's the same thing here with news/media: As the business model is changing, everybody is becoming a reality show host — until we pivot to the right financial model.

It could appear that Substack could be that model, but The Bulwark's alarmist tendencies suggests maybe not: Even if they are user-funded, a model in which they fully depend on subscriptions means they are incentivized to bump out content and to keep everyone on the hook with alarm.

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