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@georgetakei Well, let's see, we had Reagan and Trump, and those worked out just dandy.

@georgetakei 👎 Enough celebrities. We need professionals who know how the government works and what their responsibilities are from day one.

@Nonya_Bidniss @georgetakei
I’d settle for public servants who know how the world works.

If they happen to be celebrities and also have a GitHub profile, even better.

@paninid I guess my sense of it is celebrities do know how the world works...for them. @georgetakei

@georgetakei Unless it's a figurehead role like in government systems where the head of state isn't the head of government, the requirements of political leadership have essentially no overlap with acting. The only reason to choose an actor is for them to play a role, pretending to lead while the actual control is handled by unelected manipulators in the shadows.

@georgetakei
I don't think anyone should run for president from scratch. Try a regional office first, whoever you are, and prove that you are serious.

@georgetakei Seems like a bad idea to be honest. And it already seemed like that to me *before* 2017.

@georgetakei Maybe being the president shouldn't be the first political office someone should hold? If he had previously served as a state governor, and had done a good job, it would be different.

It actually seems good to get more people in politics with different background than typical politicians. But being a celebrity in itself isn't a great qualification for office.

@georgetakei I prefer candidates without indictments and no connections to the criminal underworld.

@georgetakei I think they'd try to ACT in ways that are better than mere politicians.

Because they'd be self-centered enough to care about their reputations, so they might not be COMPLETE assholes.

But, that may also depend on the entourage's influence.

@georgetakei But, again, that might all be an act. *laugh*

Thanks for being on here, Mr. Takei.

@georgetakei It depends. There are probably celebs who are educated & spend a lot of their free time engaged with law &/or science. Too bad Ed Begley Jr. developed Parkinson's.

@georgetakei no problem with celebrity candidates. The first 2 celebrity presidents were terrible but that's not to say all celebrities would be. You'd probably be good.

@georgetakei This makes sense to me. US elections have become a popularity contest, no different than America’s Got Talent et al.. Have they always been this way?

@georgetakei

Dwayne Johnson seems to be a good person and would want to do the right thing. But he has no policy experience. Could he handle going up against Xi Ping, Bibi, or Putin?

Being a celebrity doesn't mean you know how to run the country. It takes more than selfies and walking the red carpet

@georgetakei

Pretty neutral really. The first example that came to mind was Reagan, so that made me lean towards saying "what a shit idea", but I guess not every celebrity is Reagan.

@georgetakei Reagan and Trump haven’t been a good look, right?

@georgetakei Seems like it's worth separating out "celebrity" (eg: folks like Oprah, Dr. Oz) and "actor" as a specific sub-class of celebrity (eg: Reagan.) Some celebrities are folks we know a lot about. Others are folks we know primarily as fictional characters. I'd vote for George Takei, whose positions are well known now as a real person, but if you asked me decades ago if I'd vote for Sulu, I'd be skeptical.

@georgetakei Not much, though I had a lot of respect for Al Franken. But I must say that the fact that Johnson turned it down increases my respect for him, almost as much as his remarkably good voice work in "Moana" did.

@georgetakei IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT I THINK.

(ahem)

Not seriously, though I would watch the hell out of that campaign...

@georgetakei There have been a few exceptions, but celebrity candidates are typically media-trained shills for dark-purposed plutocrats.

I don't like them for the same reason McDonald's never named Ronald McDonald as its CEO.

By contrast, plutocrats like them because they save money on brand-building and execute orders without question.

@georgetakei idiocracy was not a film, but a prophecy.😖

@georgetakei I think that's the kind of nonsense that brought us Donald Trump.

@georgetakei We've elected two celebrities in this country. The first put mentality compromised people on the street because he convinced us that tax payers didn't want to pay for it. The second one stacked the supreme Court against women's rights.

In short no. I want an educated, critical thinking person to be president. Not some brainless face that has been handed everything on a silver platter their whole life. I want a president that helps Americans.

@georgetakei Might have had a better chance pre Black Adam fallout 😂

@georgetakei granted I was on the other side in the cold war, but I do recall some in the Apollo crew, who used mankind's highest scientific achievements to reach our only natural satellite , felt it's a good idea to be in the same party as Nixon, one of mankind's lowest achievements.

@georgetakei Part of the problem there are a lot of very well qualified and skilled candidates for elected positions that never run. This is due to the existing system favouring candidates that can sell themselves rather than individuals who could deliver the best social policies. We need a way to build a capacity to put highly skilled candidates into a pipeline for elected positions that reduces the need for them to sell themselves and have the system “sell” the best candidates.

@georgetakei I think that the President of the United States should not be an entry-level public service position.

I'm sure Mr. Johnson is a nice man and all, but just no...

@georgetakei
Celebrity gets one name recognition.

Name Recognition gets one votes.

None of these give one competence.

@georgetakei

It depends. Some of the most intelligent and insightful people I've worked with were actors and directors who had empathy and deep insights into the human condition.

Also, I do think that in the US, there is something inspiring about the fact that anyone in theory could be elected to office, especially President.

Being a celebrity does not make you a leader. But neither should it exclude you either.

Trump's problem is not that he's a celebrity. It is that he is a bad person.

@georgetakei it's easy to say no, but Zelenskyy hasn't seemed to work out badly. I don't think being a celebrity inherently makes you bad. It's just a coincidence if you end up being good.

@georgetakei Big no from me. I want candidates that are qualified. Celebrity is not equal to qualified.