The aforementioned Ronald Reagan, a former movie star, was supposed to be a joke, and then he became a successful governor and a two-term president. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and actor before entering politics, has demonstrated tremendous courage and leadership skills. And just last week, actor Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Texas, made an emotional and compelling argument for common sense gun reform at the White House. (Was this a first step in a journey toward elected office?)

Now, I realize that this is sort of magical thinking. Back in the old days of a liberal media monopoly, every once in a while, someone on the right would come up with what they thought was a novel solution: Why don’t we just buy CBS? On one hand, this is a laughably obvious quick-fix solution. On the other hand, the Democratic Party is currently in a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of situation. Actually, this is bigger than just a political party. The more I look at the potential field of Democratic politicians, the more I think this deus ex machina plot device might be the only scenario that could finally extract America from a Trump-Biden-Trump race-to-the-bottom death spiral.

This doesn’t have to be a gimmick. I’m not suggesting they go all Kardashian. But why not draft Tom Hanks, George Clooney, or even McConaughey? They’re all beloved mainstream performers—and each to their own extent has demonstrated a passion for politics.