The death-spiral of the Democratic party can still be arrested in 2026, but only if they manage to focus hyper-locally in the 2026 midterm elections and flip the House of Representatives.

The way the market is responding to tariffs and unpredictability, it’s doable. However, with apparatchiks installed in many districts, there might be enough barely legal challenges to cherry-pick votes. This isn’t your mother’s Department of Justice. Will the dollars of CEOs reeling from trade wars still flow to the GOP in tight races? As Ernest Hemingway said, “How do you like it now, gentlemen?”

If the House doesn’t get flipped in 2026, all bets are off in 2028. We are likely to be blessed with compliant judge advocate generals, a Supreme Court friendly to executive power and an invertebrate GOP caucus in need of spinal surgery. Though we’ve been dancing around it, welcome to Constitutional crisis — particularly if social media and academia are silenced or complicit, along with law firms like Paul Weiss. When it comes to small details such as the future of the republic, I’m an optimist only because I can’t live long on that lonely avenue.

The year 2028 will see the World Series of democracy. Spring training has begun years early, with Democratic hopefuls lining up to get scouted. Roll in the kegs, because it’s looking like a tailgate party of presidential wannabees. Is there anything more dispiriting than California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Bay Area progressive once upon a time, surfing the waves of podcasting with the likes of Steve Bannon? Newsom’s blue suit is barely visible through the purple haze over the Golden Gate.

The Dems will need more than business-as-usual in 2028. They might take a page from the GOP playbook. Remember that dog-whistling B-actor who also served time as California governor: Ronald Reagan? The Gipper showed that name value and a pretty face matters — a lot. He rode in atop a Trojan horse of small-government Reaganomics. Many still buy the myth. Consider a couple of illuminating facts: Under President Reagan, when Elon Musk was still just a kid in Pretoria, the federal workforce grew by more than 300,000. And the federal deficit, hobbyhorse of the old GOP? It was $78.9 billion when Reagan assumed office; eight years later, it had ballooned to $152.6 billion. Lean and mean Ronnie, indeed.

Let’s dial back to the close of the Dwight Eisenhower era. It was a tough presidential race in 1960. The winner, over Eisenhower’s vice president, was a Boston Brahmin with whom America fell in love. John F. Kennedy’s victory held off the criminality of Richard Nixon for eight years. To many thoughtful voters in the autumn of 1960, Ike’s VP looked far more solid than the relatively untested senator from New England. But TV held sway over radio. Nixon’s 5 o’clock shadow on the debate stage looked too much like Humphrey Bogart’s in “The Desperate Hours.” TV viewers went all the way with JFK. The era of image over experience had dawned.

If Donald Trump has proven one thing, it’s that you don’t even require a California gubernatorial stint to bulk up your resume. Fame alone will do it. If we want to get democracy back on track, we may need to suffer through a political newbie’s administration. Just to be safe, we’ll take away their Signal app. If the best we can look forward to on the GOP side is Vice President JD Vance, it feels like any Dem in the phone book will do.

But the Democrats’ usual suspects won’t cut it. The electoral machinery is stacked against them. We need a unicorn. In a better world, governors like Wes Moore, of Maryland, and Gretchen Whitmer, of Michigan, might appeal. Assemble your own police lineup. These are not normal times. Democrats should consider a prominent person outside of politics: someone voters already love; a Reagan-meets-Kennedy for our times; a player who’ll meet Trump, Mark Burnett’s Frankenstein, and raise him. I happen to have a list in my make-a-wish pocket. The trick is getting them to run. Most won’t consider it, so it’s up to you, fellow Americans, to light up social media.

Let’s put a funhouse mirror to the Democratic primaries, starting with a dynamic star, Beyonce. Points for her, having earned her country music stripes for middle America. She can play her own inauguration. Then there’s Taylor Swift, who’s got the football vote and the daughters of a new American revolution. Visualize these in the Oval Office: George Clooney; Leonardo DiCaprio; Tom Hanks; Scarlett Johansson; John Legend. Who doesn’t love Clooney, arguably the last of the matinee idols? DiCaprio has a titanic following. Hanks? Say no more, Mr. America. Johansson could break the glass ceiling in several ways. And as for Legend, EGOT trumps MAGA.

Implausible, you say? Democrats went by the book with Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. “How do you like it now, gentlemen?”