Connor Lounsbury is a Democratic media consultant. Before that, though, he was an actor. In an opinion column that ran in the August 26, 2026, edition of The New York Times, Lounsbury says that "Democrats Need To Learn How To Act." That is the hardcopy version of the headline on his column. Online, Lounsbury's thoughts are described by the following headline: "Great Actors Are More Believable Than Democrats." Jon Ossoff and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pictured above, are Democratic candidates who get Lounsbury's seal of approval. They've both got "presence," he says, which is the most important thing.
Here's the quote from Lounsbury's column that has stimulated my blog posting today (emphasis added):
Democrats’ debates about messaging and ideology are our beautiful lies — not because they are false but because they allow us to avoid our real problems. We are focused on the symptoms of apathy, not the apathy itself. When Hamlet asks, “To be, or not to be?” he is deciding whether to take action in spite of his suffering or check out entirely. It’s the same choice Democrats face today.
You can read the entirety of Lounsbury's column if you'd like to hear what he has to say about Democratic Party politics at this critical time in our national history. I'd like to comment on the more "existential question" posed by Shakespeare (you know, "to be, or not to be?"). As the quote above should make clear, Lounsbury thinks that question is pertinent to us all, right now, and I do, too.
I am not saying that typical partisan politics is not important, though I'm not a big "party" guy. What I am saying is that the question facing the nation, and facing all of us, who are supposedly in charge, is whether we will be "actors" in the sense of "taking action," or whether we will be "spectators," who don't believe ourselves to be "on stage," but rather identify with the audience, sitting in their comfortable, or perhaps not so comfortable, seats.
"To be, or not to be" is the true and existential question that faces us all, as we contemplate our lives, and as we determine what our lives mean, and what role we have in our own lives, with the basic and binary choice already described. Are we "actors" or "spectators"? As Shakespeare puts it in Hamlet, we do need to make a fundamental choice and decision about just that question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
So, what is it going to be, friends? Are we just going to get up each day to face those "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," as we contemplate the latest actions of our current president, and his largely incompetent cronies, or are we going to "take up arms" (meaning getting personally engaged in the struggle)?
There is no doubt what's needed - and particularly if we want to side with Abraham Lincoln, and make sure that a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" does not "perish from this earth."
"Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." That's the way our Declaration of Independence puts it. Our money, our time, and all our lives. That is what is at stake. That is what we need to put out there, on the table, if we want to preserve self-government in the United States of America. That's the kind of "acting" we need, and there is enough time for your action, and mine, to make a difference, before November 3rd!
https://www.facebook.com/Newsweek/posts/ocasio-cortez-and-ossoff-are-seen-as-potential-candidates-in-the-2028-democratic/1385935703406870/
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