Lovett or Leave It - Exhale to the Chief

Episode Date: January 23, 2021

President Biden. Vice President Harris. Lady Gaga. Democrats take power, the center shifts, and a new era begins. Kumail Nanjiani and I talk through our feelings about this moment. Heather McGhee talks about her book The Sum of Us and how to move forward in a divided country. And we play a game about Democratic moderates and how their views have changed over the years. What a week. What. A. Week.

Welcome to Love It or Leave It, Vaxxed to the Future. John's going, going, Vaxxed, Vaxxed to the future, future. John's going, going, Vaxxed, Vaxxed to the future future john's going going vax vax to the future future it's the same one i used for the first one john that song was uh created by a monster named travis we need you to help make sure we never have to hear that again so please make make a Love It or Leave It Vaxxed to the Future theme song. You can send it to us at leaveit at crooked.com. Submissions welcome. Before we get to the show, the first episode of Rubicon season two is out now. This season, Crooked Media editor-in-chief and host Brian Boitler is following the first 100 days of the Biden administration and the debates among Democrats about how to use the power we worked so hard to

win. New episodes are out every Friday. Check it out and subscribe to season two of Rubicon wherever you get your podcasts. Later in the show, we'll be joined by Heather McGee and we'll have a game that looks at how the Democratic Party has shifted in recent years. But first, hi, thanks for doing this. Oh, thanks for having me. How's it going? It's good. Things are good. It's a new day, you know? Weird.

Why? Did anything change? There's a... It is weird. I've been thinking about it that there's this essay called The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It talks about how he was really depressed for a long time and then he got a little bit better and he cracked like a plate the second he realized he was really depressed for a long time. And then he got a little bit better and he cracked like a plate. The second he realized he was doing better, like basically like he could live at a really low point,

but a slight bit of, and then he just was completely obliterated by it. So I'm a little bit worried for us. I just think we got to, we've just been through like a terrible trauma. Four years. And we're still in the middle of a pandemic. So I just think we're going to come out of this

and there's going to be some unexpected. We're just going to cry at weird time as a society. I don't mean individually as a society. We're going to have episodes and we're going to behave strangely. Yeah. And have moments and little paroxysms of unexpected chaos, whatever. But like it's going to be a slow unfurling of a better moment, I think. I think so. But I also think like just sort of looking at social media like yesterday, you could feel already the temperature going down.

Like people are a little less like angry at everything. And, you know, obviously people were like being snarky about stuff yesterday, but it felt different. It didn't feel like we were snarking to survive. Yes. It just feels, it didn't feel like the desperate thing of like, you know? Yeah. And then there is, there is always this backlash, which is like, you know, like hope is cringe, you know?

Care, you know, like, like, no, it's not, it's okay. You know, it's just like, uh, you think today is good? No, it's, they're the problems. Right. Things aren't perfect. Yeah. America isn't perfect, but it's better today than it was yesterday. Well, yesterday, all like my various political text chains were going and people were saying stuff. And I was kind of like, all right, I am instituting a day of positivity.

So I know there are problems, but it's also okay to like celebrate for one day. Let's take one fucking day to be like, oh my God, it's better. And I had this feeling, you know, Emily was like, let's get up at 5 a.m. to watch him leave. I was like, I don't know if we could do that. However, we got up, you know, obviously we did not watch him leave,

watch the actual inauguration and all that. But that clip of watching him leave felt like an exorcism. I felt like I really needed to watch that. I can't hear him speak, but I watched his speech and I watched him get into Marine One and fly off. And that honestly felt lighter. And then yesterday, I watched the inauguration and all that. I was just like exhausted all day. And I was like, maybe this is what being relaxed feels like. I had forgotten. The anxiety was, was constant, right? There were like peaks and there were ebbs

and flows, but I need to get some ref reps on being calm. So, and not, not complacent. All right. You know, if you're listening to this, I did not give you an opening. Oh man, so many caveats. You're like anticipating all the controversy and all that. Well, I think we're going to bounce back and forth. Like, yeah, let's take a moment to be extremely grateful and hopeful and proud and excited.

It's okay to take a moment to be extremely grateful and hopeful and proud and excited. It's okay to take a moment to be extremely excited that Joe Biden is president, to root for him thoroughly, to be proud of 17 executive orders that erase a ton of some of the most heinous decisions made over the last four years. We'll have the fights. We're going to have them. They're going to be big and they're going to go on and they're going to be intense and they're going to be Democrat on Democrat battles that are really important. I'm ready. I want them.

I'm ready for the fight. Yeah. But I'm giving myself till the Sunday shows. Yeah. Sure. Give me till Sunday. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Dr. Fauci on the press conference today. And I got like teary eyed because he looked so giddy

to be working with people who actually cared and had a plan. And then I got the PDF of the COVID plan. I didn't read it. It's 200 pages. But the fact that it's there is amazing. It is. And I was just glad to see that his arm has finally healed from voting for Joe Biden so hard. He threw his shoulder out. Yeah, I think he broke the table. We're already kind of in it. We should just start. He's a comedian, actor, writer. Welcome back, returning champion, Kumail Nanjiani.

It's good to see you. Yeah, man. Good to see you. Good to see you. It's a new day, as you said. We've already begun getting into it, but let's get into it. What a week. On Wednesday, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.

Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman and first woman of color to be vice president. Joe Biden was sworn in on a Bible. Of course it was his Bible, a DVD box set of seasons one through six of the show Bosch. That's the first joke of the Biden era that's it I can't tell what the tone is that people love do you love Bosch I don't know Bosch I'm sure it's I'm not criticizing but I've never seen Bosch I just it's a funny word it looks like the kind of show Joe Biden watches it just looks like a dad show it inspires passionate people I'll say that some Bosch heads out there uh let's see. Bill Clinton,

George W. Bush, and their caretaker, Barack Obama, delivered a message about the peaceful transfer of power. That was very nice. Really, you're getting old. Yeah. I like it. Sometimes you watch these guys outside and you start worrying

for them. I was like, oh, thank God Barack Obama's there. Everything goes them. I was like, oh, thank God Barack Obama's there. And Doug Emhoff became the first second gentleman and the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. There will be a Jewish Senate majority leader. And John Ossoff's victory means Georgia has a Jewish senator as well. Kumail, we are on the precipice of an event at the White House where the Senate Majority Leader can turn to the husband of the Vice President and nine other senators

and say, you call this a fucking bagel? It's a little Jewish humor. I like it. I love Jewish humor. Love bagels. There's just cream cheese? There's no smoked salmon at this event? It's a little chilly in here, isn't it?

Bernie's like, it is chilly. It's because we're under the vent. They got us seated under the vent. President Biden, first time I've said that, delivered an extraordinary inaugural address at a unique moment amid a pandemic and economic crisis and in the aftermath of an insurrection, at the very place he was standing. We've learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile.

And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed. Democracy, of course, Kamal, is the name of the algorithm we use to change the votes on the Dominion machines. Oh, that is. You're skirting. You're skirting the line. If you get anybody who believes that, listening to this, they're like, there's proof. They really did that. Look, and just for the, honestly, I'm more scared of the Dominion lawyers. They got an itchy trigger finger.

Oh, I love it. They're firing off letters left and right. It. Oh, I love it. They're firing off letters left and right. It's delightful. I love it. It's delightful. I love when the MyPillow guy was like, bring it on. I was like, that's great. Yes, I want to see this play out. I just like that there are these just right-wing news sites that are like, they stole it and stopped the steal. It's bullshit. Dominion machines, Hugo Chavez, China. And then they just are laid totally on their backs. It's just like we deeply regret what we had published and it was wrong. It's so funny.

It's the best. Those clips are so funny. We have no proof. I mean, Dominion did nothing wrong. It's hilarious. I've read those so many times. I watched the clip of Fox News saying it. Couldn't love it more. Eugene Goodman, who lured rioters away from the Senate chamber during the insurrection, escorted Vice President Kamala Harris to the inaugural ceremony Wednesday. And once again, he proved to be a hero as he helped her narrowly avoid a conversation with Ted Cruz. Oh, wow. I'll tell you, man, that is the most heroic thing he did. I think I did see Kamala Harris try and avoid talking to Mike Pence. I think I did clock that.

Mike Pence had to hand the golden microphone to Lady Gaga, which was cool. I missed that moment. I mean, I watched it. He gave it to her? He had to hand it to her. I guess he was there. Jennifer Lopez performed the song, This Land is Your Land, but snuck in one line from Let's Get Loud. Just a brief bit of gay news. She sang Let's Get Loud like it was the most beautiful idea in American history. This Land is Your Land is an American

anthem. It tells an American story more than is a more American, it tells an American story more than our national anthem does, which is about like the perseverance of a flag, which is great. Huge fan. But This Land is Your Land, that's a beautiful American sentiment. Let's Get Loud is really not.

Isn't it? Isn't that somehow a more American sentiment than This Land is Your Land? Maybe so. Let's Get Loud. Maybe so. Let's indiscriminately, with anything you want. If you have something you

want to get loud with, an idea, a sound, welcome. Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, just get loud. Fair enough, fair enough. Not to be outdone, during the national anthem, Lady Gaga replaced, oh say can you see, with suddenly the coons Is Me.

Weird lyric. Rona and I have spent years dissecting Suddenly the Coons Is Me. This idea of one day you're a Coons fan, suddenly the Coons is me. What is the exact line? I think one day you're a Coons, then suddenly the Coons is me. It's a funny lyric about a very specific artist. What is it? I don't even know.

One second I'm a Coons fan, then suddenly the Coons is me. And I think it's, this is why it is, I would not say it's a poem up to Amanda Gorman level, but it is a bit of poetry. And it's saying, I don't know what it's saying, but it's like one day you're looking at art and then the next day you've made yourself art, you know, Gaga is saying. Okay. Is it sort of something like sometimes you're the bird, sometimes you're the statue, that thing? No, different. Maybe. It can be whatever you want. I think that's what it means. I'm going with that. Yeah. We also witnessed a star turn for Amanda Gorman,

the 22-year-old poet from Los Angeles who stole the show. So let us leave behind a country better than one. We were left with every breath from my bronze-pounded chest. We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the windswept Northeast where of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast, where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.

In every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid. The new dawn balloons as we free it. For there is always light if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it. I love the poem, Kumail, but the whole thing was a little depressing because, you know, Michelle and Barack cornered her immediately to do a podcast with them. And that means that Cricket's not even going to get a chance to pitch.

I just I'm not saying she won't go with higher ground like that makes sense. I would obviously Michelle Obama and Barack Obama come up to me at inaugural and tell me to do a podcast, I'm gonna do it I'm just saying, I want a chance to let us get in the room let me get in the room that's right, meet a couple people sure, obviously, you know

higher ground is gonna be great, but hey you guys got a lot going on meetings are free, it's over Zoom I don't wanna end up with A-Rod Brooke is gonna end up with A-Rod A-Rod's podcast's going to end up with A-Rod. A-Rod's podcast. We were watching it and Emily was like, is that A-Rod? You can't see anybody's faces. And yeah, that was A-Rod. Then in just a few hours, President Biden issued 17 executive orders, memorandums,

and proclamations. I haven't seen this kind of a transformation since Kumail started working out. Yeah, that one was way bigger. You know, Emily, I was working yesterday, and Emily even texted me that, and she's like, this was day one. We really need to, like, get our ass in gear. It was such a good feeling, you know. Honestly, like, it really does feel like an exorcism. My God. Oh, like you said, there's a lot of work to do, but this is a start. It is a start. And it's we will have to really reckon with how much damage.

Look, he did an incredible, extraordinary amount of damage. A lot of people are dead. A lot of people didn't make it. He would have done more. Why didn't he? Some of that is because of the fight. We fought really hard to stop a lot of the worst actions. And that is an incredible testament to everybody who fought so hard over four long years. But we should also be honest that incompetence protected us often

more than our own work did. But what's reassuring now is Biden comes in with incredibly competent, sophisticated people who actually understand and care about government. And that competence is going to put Democrats inside the administration in position to undo the worst things in ways that the previous administration was not able to do to Barack Obama's successes. And I think that is a very hopeful sign to me, that they could come in this quickly and this hard. Whether it was around the census or their first run at the Muslim ban, which is now repealed, or a number of other steps they tried to take. Even the Supreme Court had to undo

some of their executive actions, not because they were unconstitutional, but because they were just poorly administered. They just were incompetent in their execution. We got lucky. We got lucky. We got lucky. The most acute form is what we saw in the insurrection.

We see it in people believing in QAnon. But we have to grapple with misinformation and what the supply of misinformation is via Fox News, Facebook, OAN, Newsmax. I think the harder part of it is talking about demand and how many people feel as though there is nothing wrong. And in fact, it is quite nice and lovely to seek out and only experience information that 100% comports with what you knew in the morning, so that by night you have learned nothing, adjusted nothing. That's a nice and soothing place to live. You just go further and further into sort of an ecosystem. But it is remarkable

how many people have sought that out. And I think there's a lot of people I hear about all the time that are just like, yeah, like even when I was calling voters in Pennsylvania, I would say like, you know, just tell me what's going on with your family. Who is the Trump person you've gotten? Who's the Obama person that you lost and you're going to try to get back? And the conversations in Pennsylvania, so often it was like, you know, my aunt didn't vote. Now she's going to vote. My brother, I think, devoted one way. And I think I'm going to get him. I think we're going to get a Biden vote there.

My sister-in-law, though, man, she is, I don't know her anymore. She's become radical. I can't, I don't know how to talk to her anymore. It's really scary. And you hear that all the time that like people get, they get sucked into this black hole and they become lost. And that doesn't go away because we got rid of one of the symptoms. No, it doesn't. I hope, you know, if you think back a year ago,

QAnon was very much a fringe, crazy thing. And now we saw it become sort of almost mainstream GOP stance. I think people being stuck, I think the pandemic had a lot to do with it. I think you're right. A lot of people feel lost and lonely before the pandemic as well. But I think the pandemic really magnified a lot of it. Because here's the thing. We've been exhausted for four years. People who disagree with us politically have also been exhausted for four years. The people who believe in QAnon, they don't look soothed to me. I mean, you saw those people at the Capitol, like they look like they are in crisis. These four years have been tough for everybody, like everybody's exhausted. And so I think hopefully that leads to some sort of lowering of temperature and some sort of emotional reset. Start like sort of feeling, feeling normal again. I certainly feel

different today and yesterday. When I saw that, I'll tell you, man, when I saw that 200-page PDF, that feeling of like, oh, they got this, and it's very hard, and they're going to make mistakes, as you said, but that feeling of that someone's really trying to do a good job, because I feel like the last four years, it certainly felt to me like, oh, my God, I have to personally work as hard as I possibly can to make sure that the country doesn't like fall apart. And, and I think you've felt the same too. I've done your podcast a few times. It really, you've had a mission these four years, a personal mission. Hopefully now it can be, it doesn't feel so, so desperate. Hey, we can have fun.

There's a four year ultra marathon. Yeah. And we had to stay really engaged. And I think can have fun. This is a four-year ultramarathon. Yeah. And we had to stay really engaged. And I think we have to keep being really engaged. Yes. But I think it'll happen slowly. And so then I think the hope, right, is that we are all paying attention in a way that is sustainable, in a way that is effective, in a way that is not Manichaean, right? That is not good versus evil.

Yeah. That is not good versus evil in the sense that we are constantly focused on this one evil force in our politics, but actually on pushing Democrats to do the most that they possibly can while being attentive to the forces undergirding what allowed someone like Trump to become president in the first place. So it's a more nuanced but equally important struggle. And you know what we love in America? We love important nuance. Yeah, And you know what we love in America? We love important nuance. Yeah, nuance is so, yeah, exactly. That's our strength. Yeah, let's get

loud. Let's get nuanced. Let's get nuanced. Let's change it, yeah. So Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. Upon hearing it was canceled, Alec Baldwin immediately invited the pipeline on his podcast. Also, Biden signed an executive order renewing Tommy Vitor's favorite show, Bridgerton. He can't stop talking about Bridgerton. That's the new show that everyone's talking about. People love it. Tommy can't stop talking about it. He is addicted to Bridgerton. No pictures of it make me want to watch it, but I'm sure it's great. I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen it yet.

Yeah. Another one of President Biden's first executive orders, an end to the travel ban that targeted largely Muslim countries, largely Muslim countries looked at our COVID numbers and were like, we're good. Yeah, that's right. It's like, now you lift it. Yeah. Yeah.

No, thanks. Keep it going. We're safer this way. I remember last year, end of January, almost a year ago, I was with my parents in New York and they were about to travel to Vietnam and the virus had just sort of started coming up and they were like, you know what? I don't think we're going to go to Vietnam. It's like much safer here. We don't, it turns out Vietnam did a much better job. If they'd gone to Vietnam, they would have been safer.

Have they gotten the vaccine yet? Yeah, they have. Yeah, mine too. Yeah, they've gotten the first shot. My dad gets his next one in a week and my mom, my mom actually got her first shot today. That's cool.

Hey, that's exciting. The vaccine's happening. Come on. It's such a relief. Things are going to be okay. Yeah, I want it so bad. And in our first official Biden scandal, the New York Times reported that Biden owning a Peloton

is a national security concern, but Biden's lucky we're grading on a curve. He'll get a pass as long as he doesn't make the Peloton his national security advisor. That's right. I just Peloton who gives a fuck?

I know. I know. Nobody cares about that. That doesn't hurt his image. Nobody, what? He wants to be on a bike. It's good. It's so crazy.

Just today, you know, a reporter asked him like, hey, so do you think a hundred million in a hundred days is enough? And Joe Biden responded in a way he was like, come on, man, I just started. Give me a break. Like he's like, hey, so do you think 100 million in 100 days is enough? And Joe Biden responded in a way,

he was like, come on, man, I just started, give me a break. It was a very innocuous response. It was charming, actually. I was like, oh, Joe Biden's very good at this, being like, come on, bro. And all the headlines are like, Joe Biden snapped at reporter. That was not a snap. Have you, I mean, let's ask the reporter how it felt to hear Joe Biden say that to him and how it's felt when Trump has said it or Kayleigh has said it. Enemy of the people. It was two months ago. It's going to be frustrating to talk about the past four years. It's also going to be frustrating when we forget the past four years. I'm going to be annoying in both directions. Nothing is going to feel right. It's not going to feel right to have our politics reflect what happens. It's not going to feel right to have

our politics not reflect what happens. So that's the thing with a terrible, awful mistake. Right. There's no like blueprint for how we like dismount from these four years. You know, we're just like, hey, let's let's feel our way through the dark and walk towards that tiny pinhole of life. That was so nice. That was such a nice comment. You know, I started the sentence and I was like, I hope I land this plane. And you did. And you did. Also, Joe Biden removed the Diet Coke button from the Oval Office installed by his predecessor. Sadly, no one told him that he can't have a smart speaker in the Oval because of security issues. So he's just in there right now asking Alexa

for stuff that will never come. Aww. Alexa, play Oh Susanna. Aww. Alexa, bring me a phosphate and get Jimmy Eastland on the phone. Phosphate. That's great.

Oh, I just activated an Alexa somewhere. There's an Alexa in his room somewhere. All right. That is hilarious. It's okay. It's over. For everyone at home whose speakers I activated, I apologize. I apologize. And finally, after weeks of lobbying, Tiger King's Joe Exotic went unpardoned by the outgoing president, writing on Twitter, I was too innocent and too gay. Funny, it doesn't get you a Twitter, I was too innocent and too gay. Funny, it doesn't get you a pardon, but being too innocent and too gay does get you cast as Oliver in the 1992 Camp Starlight production of Oliver. I don't know the Camp Starlight production of Oliver. Well, the thing about it is there was a, I played Oliver in the Camp Starlight 1992.

I love it. I love it. Too innocent and too gay. Too innocent, too gay. When I was in camp, Kumail, it was a Jewish sleepaway camp. All the other kids at the camp figured out I was gay before I knew. And I was having a hard summer. And so the owner of the camp called my mother. And my mother was like, well, what's wrong?

What's going on? And this old Jew, his name was High Schmierer. His wife was Horty Schmierer. The Schmierers own this camp. And he said to my mother, friend, for boys like Jonathan, that's why we do the musicals. That's great. That sounds great.

He sounds great. When we come back, OK Stop. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now it's time for OK Stop. You know how it works. Roll a clip and Kumail and I can say OK Stop at any point to comment.

The left. We have the culture, but that's not always so great. In fact, at Wednesday's inauguration, at times it felt like fight song the telethon. So we put together some of our favorite moments for you to enjoy.

Our hearts were in it, but you know, listen, it's okay. We can joke about it. It's time. Let's roll the clip. From sea to shining sea. It's shining, see. Let's get it on.

Well, that was great. The sun is shining. And Mr. President-elect, this is the first inauguration in the history of America where J-Lo was the warm-up act for Chief Justice Roberts. With that... Okay, stop. I have to give props to that line. I thought it was great. I don't know if it was off the cuff or pre-written. Big fan. What say you? I liked it. It worked for me. You know, Amy Klobuchar, I know she got some, people gave her some guff for making that hair blizzard joke many times, but I liked it. Yeah. She's very charming. She's got like the energy of someone who's like an amateur, who's like doing a pretty good job hosting an amateur comedy show. Hey, I think that's right.

I think that's right. I think that's right. Yeah. It's like, oh, wow, wow. She was actually pretty good. Like, that's how it felt. She was comfortable, charming. She was great.

Kamala, this one's for you. Wake up, kids. We got the dreamer's disease. Edge 14, it got you down on your knees. So, oh, I'm busy still saying. Okay, stop. First of all, the voice is still there. Still got it.

Still got it. I have a couple of hat notes. One is don't wear it. Don't wear that hat. No reason. Don't wear that hat. I get wearing. You know this is the inauguration, right?

Like everybody in the world can see you. It's a big day. What was your second option for the hat? What is that hat called? It's like a fishing hat? Yeah, he was on his- What's that called when it's got the brim that goes on a catamaran? I think it's a fisherman's hat.

A fisherman's hat. I have one of those. There was a time I was trying to pull it off many years ago. Oh, no. Didn't work for me. Oh, no. Doesn't quite work for him, but he can wear it. I still have it.

Comics often have, I think, an almost like Freudian death drive around fashion, which is there is some kind of a dark pull that you see people who are so funny and so good at pointing out why some fashion effort has gone too far, the neediness and trying too hard that went into the choice, the effort to pretend to be someone you're not, the fear of being seen for who you really are. They're so great at cutting right to that. And then they're like, but check out my leather jacket. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. But again, voice is still holding up. Great, great work. Great voice. Great voice. Okay, stop. What is Rent doing in this event? Like, what is the... I don't get the connection.

I don't either. And we're in the middle of a pandemic. I don't know if it's like a celebratory thing to sort of be highlighting right now. Right. And it's also like, that song's about a year. Yeah. So it's like, what's the significance? It's a four-year event.

It doesn't quite work. We've been through a long time, which is a little surprising. Also some, you know, did I see that? What's his name from the improv show? Wayne Brady. Yeah. That was Wayne Brady. He had in the background, I just noticed, an errant microphone just hanging out.

Like, dude, you're doing the inauguration. Clear the frame. Clear the frame. Clear the frame. Clear the frame. You know, yes and the frame. Yeah. Oh, they did the, what do you call it? The thing with the cranberries.

And then Joe Biden runs over to say hello to Al Roper. I love his reaction here. I love Al Roper's reaction. Watch this. Keep going. Thank you. Well, we got a fist bump. We got a fist bump. President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr. Hello. Okay, stop, stop. Just for those listening at home,

that was an incredible event in which there was a tracking shot that went up through a marching band, through the Lincoln Memorial, then turns right, almost as if Biden is a surprise reveal, which I loved. And he just says, hello.

And he just says, hello. Listen, Joe, love you, voted for you. We'll vote for you as many times as you run for anything, come up with a better start than hello that's a Bernie line, also it's a Bernie line it's still Bernie it's a Bernie line, that's right that's right

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh, oh, brave. Okay, stop. I have to say, zero notes for Lady Gaga. I would not change a thing. No fucking notes, Gaga. No fucking notes. It's perfect.

She came out she looked sort of nervous and she understood the moment and then she was like a little bit awkward and then she sang and it's like she's it's like a fucking special effect the way she sings it just sounds magical and then she like sort of became like a human being again afterwards it was like a little bit awkward i think she said to Vice President Kamala Harris, she was like, have a wonderful inauguration. And then you could see on her face that she's like felt a little bit stupid about saying that.

She didn't have a sentence ready. No notes, Gaga. No notes, Gaga. It ruled. It ruled. I like the giant bird, which was either an eagle or a dove. And I don't care which one it was. I liked it. I like the giant bird, which was either an eagle or a dove. And I don't care which one it was.

I liked it. I liked the big, flowy, red skirt. I liked the blue, ferocious jacket. I liked the hair. I liked the braids in the hair. I liked the golden microphone. I liked everything that you did. I loved the sort of unholy marriage of eccentric and respectable that she was wearing.

It felt like perfect. Perfect. It was Gaga, but it was also the inauguration. 50-50, no notes. No notes. And I'll just say this. I liked Lady Gaga being there. I liked what it said.

Like, hey, hey, it's Gaga's time now. All right. The America that likes Lady Gaga, it's our fucking time. All right. But hey, there's Garth Brooks here. So it's Garth's time too. It's everybody's time. Unity.

Unity. Not just a word. And I'll say one more thing, because I do think that like from the Democratic Convention to the inaugural celebration that Tom Hanks hosted, who looked quite chilly, I'll say, that Stephanie Cutter, Adrian Elrod, two of the people that have helped figure out how to do these events, they've done an extraordinary job of taking something

that would have had a crowd, would have been a big event, and found a way to do it, to play into the strengths of us all being remote and doing all these extraordinary things with being in different places, going to different videos. And I'll say one other thing, which is, Katy Perry Firework has been around for so long. It works on me 100% of the time. Yep. Yep. I am a fire. When I am hearing that song, I am a firework.

Yeah. All right. I love that song and I don't care. I had to like, we were, Emily and I were watching it and I had to like go to the bathroom and I were watching it, and I had to go to the bathroom, and I just got a text from Emily, and it said, firework? The next text was, baby, you're up. And I ran out of the bathroom because I wanted my heart to soar again. And you know what? Somebody somewhere at some moment said, what if Katy Perry sings firework during fireworks? And somebody else was like, it's just crazy enough to work.

I love the moment where Joe Biden, President Joe Biden, is like looking at the fireworks and there's a big one and he like points at it. It was so, just so charming. It's a new day. It's a new day.

Kamel Nanjiani, thank you so much for being here. Oh my God, thanks for having me. And that's OK Stop. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. She's a political strategist,

chair of the Board of Directors for Color of Change, and author of her upcoming new book, The Sum of Us, What Racism Costs Everyone, and How We Can Prosper Together. Please welcome Heather McGee. Nice to see you. Thanks for being here. Nice to be with you. So I'm glad we're speaking this week at this inflection point. During the inaugural, Amanda Gorman gave this incredible poem where she said,

we've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, which seemed to me a statement not just about insurrection, not just about the last four years, but it immediately actually thought of your book and the story you're telling in the book about zero-sum racial politics versus solidarity politics. Can you talk a little bit about that tension and how much it's been on display over the past few weeks? Yeah. I mean, that was just the most moving moment of the inauguration by far. So the parable at the heart of my book, The Sum of Us, is the story that actually probably a lot of, you know, both of our parents might remember that happened all across the country where in towns that had large resort style public swimming pools, and there were over 2,000 of them in the country. Many of them were segregated or whites only, and when the civil rights movement gained legal decisions integrating them, many in every single region of the country, towns decided to drain their public swimming pools rather than integrate them. Literally, just destroy a public resource rather than sharing it. And so I start my book with that

story because it really is the question of why America can't have nice things. And over and over again, I found that racism is the answer. That in fact, white Americans used to love the idea of a big, huge activist government that guaranteed a high standard of living. And that social consensus fell apart with the civil rights movement and the idea that the beneficiaries of such public largesse would be people of color as well. And that's kind of where we are now, right? This era of inequality and austerity of white Americans voting repeatedly for the party that has opposed civil rights ever since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. And, you know, that's been sort of the economic story. My book traces all of these

different economic examples from white people turning their backs on collective bargaining to white people actually being not that excited about tackling climate change, which is something that I didn't even know before I started researching the book, that there's this huge gulf in enthusiasm for climate change solutions that is a racial divide, to, of course, how we've seen it play out in the Trump era and in the past couple of weeks, where, like in the Reconstruction era, tens of millions of white Americans are willing to basically burn down the edifice of our own democracy, rather than submit to the idea of a multiracial democracy and believe outrageous lies that themselves are trafficked in racism, right? The idea of massive voter fraud in places like

Detroit, wink, wink. I mean, how do you even get to believing that idea without having this association between Black people and crime? I'm excited that for every story of the drained public pool that shows up in our society. We also have the story of people coming together across lines of race to build something better. You know, January 5th was an extraordinary day before January 6th, right? We had a multiracial coalition anchored by Black leadership marching through Dr. King's church to basically save the country. And then, of course, you had a backlash to all of that. But that's the tension of America.

I want to dig into the problem, and I want to talk about some of the ways out that you point to in the book. You know, you talked about Georgia. You know, one of the things that was a big part of the Democratic campaign was talking about rural hospitals. You say in the book, the country was caught without a public health capacity largely because of the drained pool. You say in the book, the country was caught without a public health capacity, largely because of the drained pool. Anti-government sentiment that had humbled the public health infrastructure and decades of cuts to public hospitals in low-income of color communities that left half of low-income areas without a single ICU bed when the pandemic hit. And what was striking to me about that is I read it and I actually, I realized in the moment, like, I don't know, where is my mind going when I see that? Am I thinking of hospitals in Black communities in the South? Or am I thinking about rural hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska that have also been hit by the same problem? And I realized in that moment, of course,

this has come for both of them. This has come for hospitals in poorer communities that are white and poorer communities that are Black across the country. Is that message breaking through? Is that part of the reason we did win two Senate seats in Georgia? I do think that message, you know, Charles Booker's message from the hood to the holler, right, that idea of a working class solidarity across lines of race is the only way forward. But it requires that Democrats put forward real, easy to understand solutions to those problems. Right. Because we have to recognize the Republican megaphone is always going to be bigger, right? They just, they have the entire coordinated right-wing media ecosystem. And so their meaning making is always going to be front of mind for white Americans, right? There's just a cultural affiliation and a loud, loud megaphone.

We can't be too cute, right? We can't be too complex. We have to make things simple and clear and offer people who are struggling of all backgrounds a real choice that will make a difference in their lives. That's why things like the fight for 15 broke through, right? It was like, okay, this isn't 10, 10 an hour with a sub-minimum wage that is set, you know, no, it was $15 an hour. This could change your life, right? That is so important. That's something that broke through that tide of racial resentment, right? The majority of white Americans actually do support a $15 minimum wage. And you saw that in red states voting for ballot initiatives for 15,

because the solution was clear. And because it was something that, because of organizing, deep organizing, and I traveled to a bunch of different places in the country in the book and talked to fast food workers about the strategies they used to sort of overcome the racist stereotypes and the racial divisions that said,

racism is an enemy to us all. If we're divided, we're conquered. That's actually a direct quote from a white Wendy's worker in Kansas City. You go to Lewiston, Maine, and you talk to somebody there who is trying to organize and is hit with some pretty racist attacks. And what this official said is, I actually think the racism in Lewiston, the center of gravity, is not the working class parts. It's in these sorts of swankier, more upscale parts of town. A Pew poll looked at the $15 minimum wage, and it found that it was broadly supported by independents, broadly supported by Democrats. It divides Republicans. But what I found striking is that it divides Republicans

by income pretty starkly. And there's actually a majority of support for raising the minimum wage for Republicans that make below, I think it was something like $40,000. How much of this practically is about cleaving off white voters who currently vote Republican by telling them a different story about where their identity belongs? I mean, this is a story that's as old as American politics. Are the white masses going to affiliate with their race or their class, right? They share class with most everybody else and race with a ruling class that is selling them a zero-sum story, a racial competition that says that your ills in your life, your struggles are the fault of basically similarly situated brown and black people. And they're selling that story to them for their own profit, right? Because then they get the white votes that then help them prop up the economic status quo.

In my book, I talk to dozens of white people who still bought that zero-sum story, but I also spoke to dozens more who rejected it. One of the most important things we have to remember is that, yes, the white working class, as defined by education level, voted for Donald Trump both times. But it is also true that the people who are really wielding that story in our politics, who are selling that story for their own profit, are rich. They're Josh Hawley. They're Rupert Murdoch. They're Donald Trump.

Right? They're Josh Hawley. They're Rupert Murdoch. They're Donald Trump, right? They're Ted Cruz. And they're just mimicking and aping the culture of the white working class in order to create that racial wedge. But it's not who they are. The racial interests of a white working class person may be served by the Republican agenda, but their class interests are not. And when we get issues like the coronavirus pandemic, when we get issues like healthcare, where you're exactly right, rural hospitals have been devastated in large part by our unwillingness to fill the pool in the first place, to have true universal healthcare. I traveled to Texas and talked to people who were working to try to reopen rural hospitals there. And they said that if the state had expanded Medicaid, which just would not happen because it was so associated with Barack Obama, but if the state had expanded Medicaid,

they'd have more rural hospitals and all the jobs and the health benefits that come from that. Ultimately, the people who are suffering from buying this zero sum are the people who really need for government to be a force for good in their lives. Well, I actually think the Medicaid example gets at the toxic forces in our politics, right? Like you have a Medicaid expansion just for people listening. Basically, this was a deal in Obamacare that said to every state in the country, we will send you a check. We will pay 90, for a while we'll pay 100%, but forever we'll pay 90% of the costs of expanding Medicaid to a ton of people in your state. It was a wealth transfer from states that had greater coverage to states that had less coverage. It would have funded hospitals. It would have helped

tons of people. It was a small cost to get all that money into the state, right? 10%, right? That's a great deal on healthcare. You're paying 10% to get in that for those federal dollars. And yet still you saw across states, especially states where there were big black populations that would have benefited from expanding Medicaid and white populations that would have benefited from, from expanding Medicaid. They said no.

And by, and no. And the politics seem to work for them for a time. How do you change that? I mean, that is, I am reluctant to say things like, oh, people are voting against their interests. But people have a way of telling you what their interests are. How do we change that story? How do we get people to recognize that their interests aren't being served in this way? When there was such a tangible way they could have been helped by the government and their leaders chose not to do it and those leaders were rewarded for it. And a lot of the leaders who went the other way were punished in those states. The white approval rating for Obamacare has not crested 40% since it was brought into being,

right? So we're talking about 60 plus percent of white Americans don't like and disapprove of what is a pretty modest healthcare reform that allows people to like shop on a website for more healthcare, you know, and has preexisting condition protections and, you know, kids staying on their parents' insurance till they're 26, right? This is not some radical socialist plot. This is

some consumer protections and a little bit more streamlining for the individual marketplace. And yet the majority, the vast majority of white Americans still to this day think it's a terrible idea because it's associated with Barack Obama and because of a 40-year campaign to associate government with Blackness and government with a degraded identity of Americans who are lazy and need government to basically, you know, compensate for some, you know, flaw in their character, right? People who need government, who have to depend on government are unable to cut it in the marketplace because there's something wrong with them. So I don't want to be a part of that, right? And that's a very racialized narrative. This rejection of Medicaid expansion is something I dig into in one of the chapters of my book,

because it's so life or death, so prominent, and has been so racialized, right? If you look at who rejected versus accepted Medicaid expansion after the Supreme Court used a state's rights theory to strike down the idea that every state should have Medicaid expansion. It was a new Mason Dixon line of health. And yet it also included a state like Maine, where a proto-Trump named Paul LePage, who was just about as bad as they come in terms of, you know, being anti-immigrant, anti-welfare, and then doing tax cuts for the wealthy, he vetoed Medicaid expansion five times. But as an example of one of what I began to call a solidarity dividend, a coalition that also included Somali taxi drivers who were bringing people to the polls, like elderly homebound people

to the polls, anchored by this grassroots organization called Maine People's Alliance, was able to finally get it on the ballot and win. And it refilled the public pool, right? You had tens of thousands of people in Maine who are disproportionately white, disproportionately elderly, disproportionately poor, having access to be able to see a doctor for the first time. And so it does take real organizing. It does take being a presence in people's lives. It does take progressives being involved in the project of meaning making. And it does take real tangible solutions being put forward to people. And I think, you know, both rural hospitals and, you know, $2,000 checks, These are the kinds of things that were so powerful in Georgia, but so was organizing, and organizing, frankly, by people of color that put people of color and white people

in relationship with one another, right? Had people knocking on doors, had people talking on the phone, had people realizing in a moment of deep isolation in the middle of a pandemic that there was someone who was their neighbor who had their back. And yes, it might have been a Black woman who was calling you. And you know what, that's actually pretty amazing that it's a Black woman who's calling you and asking you to stand up for your fellow Georgians. One sort of solution you point to in the book when you look at all of this is that we have to really be committed to meaning making, to telling a different kind of story. Joe Biden in his inaugural address was as direct and I thought clear eyed about what unity can mean if it means anything

about enough people coming together to help everybody. That's a paraphrase because I don't have in front of me what a terrible thing as a speechwriter to do to a great speechwriter, just me paraphrasing, vicious, a vicious act. But he talked about white supremacy, something a president had never said in an inaugural address before. Are we at an inflection point? Do you think that after four years of misinformation, propaganda, unprecedented lies, that we're actually going to be telling the truth in a new way? I think it's absolutely possible. And actually, I do think that Joe Biden has a very specific role that he could particularly play, right? Because this is not a racial radical, Joe Biden, right? Joe Biden is in many ways,

an avatar of the white moderate and his journey from somebody who championed a very racially unjust crime bill, someone who was opposed to busing for integration to someone who became, you know, Barack Obama's, you know, best friend, and now has been put into office with the activism and energy and overwhelming support of Black Americans, he really could say, I realize why those ideas that I had in the past were wrong and why. He could talk about the nostalgia, right, for the Scranton-type middle class as something that he knows well. He shares it. He invokes it. And yet he could disavow what so often comes along with it, which is the desire to blame immigrants and Black people and the cities for the loss of those jobs and the loss of that American

dream. And he can connect what happened to Scranton to the same class of people who are selling racist propaganda and profiting from white votes for the Republican Party. But in order to do that, he's got to give up on the idea that Trump is an aberration in the Republican Party, right? He's got to connect Trump's outright white supremacy to the tilling of the soil by a Republican Party that adopted a strategy, a Southern strategy that was about economic redistribution upwards, but that used the emotional notes of white grievance. Republican Party that adopted a strategy, a Southern strategy that was about economic redistribution upwards, but that used the emotional notes of white grievance. I think he can really tell the story of American poverty and struggle in a way that gives some dignity to people who

struggle and washes away some of the moral stain, the moralizing that happens in our harsh capitalist society that is so racialized, right? The face of poverty is so often racialized when in fact the majority of people who are in poverty are white. And the work that that does in the white imagination is that that creates a distancing, right? That it's like there's something wrong with people who are poor because they are a racialized other whom I have all these other stereotypes about. because they are a racialized other whom I have all these other stereotypes about. And he can use this moment of such widespread economic pain to say, hey, things that are happening through no fault of their own, public policy decisions, corruption,

all of that is what is making it hard for families to survive and to thrive. And we can only get there together. You know, he called for unity, but in our political context, you know, the Republicans immediately seized on that one. It's like, well, if you want unity, you better not impeach. And it's like, no, that's not what we're talking about, right? Unity as in cross-racial solidarity to do things together through collective action, right? Collective action like government, like collective bargaining, the things that Republicans hate. And of course, unity has to come together with a sense of morality and values. And the chief value that is the enemy of collective action in the American context is white supremacy. So you have to cast out white supremacy and you have to hold accountable white supremacists who wanted to burn down the

edifice of our democracy rather than submit to a multiracial democracy. You've got to do that. That has to be a part of the unity. One thing that was, I think, striking to me, and it was something I hadn't thought about before, which is, you know, people lament, oh, our infrastructure is crumbling. Our roads, our bridges, we're not building things. We're not tending these institutions. We're not tending these institutions. We're not tending these places. And you make the connection in the book that actually race is the explanation. It's not mysterious. There's no missing part of the story. We know the story. We're just afraid to tell it, that we chose to neglect our public institutions rather

than, we chose to shatter them rather than share them. Joe Manchin represents West Virginia, white, rural, poor states coming up for trillions of dollars in infrastructure. It seems to me like the deficit scolds are cowering. $15 minimum wage is in this bill. How hopeful are you right now that Democrats are going to deliver? And what do you want people listening to do to put pressure on them to deliver those simple, big, easy-to-understand victories that cross racial lines to begin to build that kind of solidarity dividend? First, all of those nice things that we want, that we haven't been able to have in this country since the civil rights movement, we can't get if we don't get rid of the Jim Crow era relic of the filibuster, right? We can't allow Mitch McConnell to still have a minority veto over what comes to a vote

when Democrats represent 40 million more people in the Senate than the Republican Party. And when our agenda is broadly popular and the Republican Party has no agenda. And the only agenda they have is barely popular with their base. So there's got to be some structural democratic reform in order to allow the wishes and will of a multiracial democracy to even be heard. So that's something that people can do, right? Oftentimes we've been focused on, can we get Chuck Schumer to endorse a $15 minimum wage? And as you just said, John, like we're kind of there on a lot of the big ideas. The center has absolutely shifted. The need is strong. The deficit scolds are cowering. And yet there is still some hesitation to actually using the mandate that we have. And that to me is insane, right? Joe Manchin's not going to get a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package if McConnell still can dictate what gets a vote. And so that fight is going on right now, right? McConnell just today said that he would filibuster over who gets chairmanships, right, in the Senate. And so it's like, he's almost daring us to finally just get rid of this thing

or some version, restore the talking filibuster even, right? Mitch McConnell isn't Jimmy Stewart standing up there getting hoarse, talking about, you know, corruption. He's, you know, placing a phone call or having somebody else do it to the Senate cloakroom to make sure that, you know, a bill never gets to the floor or it never gets any votes. And so this is a really important way. There's a chapter in my book. And so this is a really important way. There's a chapter in my book. It's really a book about the economy because that's my background. But I do include a chapter on democracy because our economy is as unequal as our democracy. And there's no greater threat to this country's representative democracy, as it has been from our founding, than racism and

white supremacy. And we continue to, in the interest of racial subjugation, attack the foundations of American democracy. The filibuster is one of those examples, as Adam Jentleson talks about so well in his new book, Killswitch. The racist roots of the filibuster are so clear, and we've got to get rid of it in order to do things in the interest of everyone. Heather McGee, thank you so much for being here. The book is The Sum of Us. Everybody should read it and just do whatever Heather says as a rule, as a good rule of thumb. Thank you, John. It's available for pre-order now, and it's out on February 16th, wherever books are sold. Great. Thank you so much. It was good to talk to you. Thank you. I'm glad we can finally do this.

Yeah, me too. Me too. Thank you to Heather McGee for joining us. When we come back, we'll play a game. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Politics. One day you're new radicals. The next day you're the new radicals. President Biden takes office in a moment of profound economic and social crisis after a disastrous Republican presidency. Twelve years ago, Vice President Biden took office in a different moment of crisis after a different disastrous Republican presidency. But what is remarkable is how much politics has shifted in the past 12 years, doing no small part to a ton of organizing and activism and just the cold, hard hammer of reality. It's amazing how far the center has moved among Democrats, putting everything from a $2 trillion rescue bill to a $15 minimum wage

to a public option in reach. So it's time to play a game we call To the Left, To the Left. Here to play the game, we have Samir from, are you in Florida? Is that right? I am now in DC, but I organized in Florida. You organized in Florida. What are you doing in DC? Well, I just got a job here. I went to school here. So I'm working back in health policy now. Moved here after the campaign. So yeah, it was a great campaign experience, but I'm glad to be back in DC now. And what did you do in Florida? What did you do to organize? I was a field organizer with the Florida Democratic Party up in northwest Florida in the panhandle. So for about five months, Matt Gates was my adopted congressman.

Cool. So it was much different. I grew up in California in the Bay Area. So totally different than the Bay or D.C., but met a lot of great Democrats there who were super excited and really willing to do the work. They took pride in being a Democrat in such a red area, and they were super excited to make phone calls, even though, you know, making phone calls can be super tough. They stuck with me for a whole five months. That was great.

And I just want to get a ballpark estimate for how old you are. Who's the first president you remember seeing on television? Ooh. Like during their presidency. During their presidency, probably Bush. W? W. Wow. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I only got involved in politics after I started to listen to the podcast. I volunteered for the first time in 2018 in the midterms. When I was at school at

GW here, I volunteered every weekend, knocked on doors. I mean, it was such a, because I did that, I wanted to be an organizer. Like I studied healthcare and health policy and I knew that I wanted to be in politics, but I'd never like actually got involved. And it was you guys that kind of got me into it. And it was great to, you know, obviously Florida didn't go our way, but it was just great to know that I got to play a part in it. And it's all kind of, you know, thanks to you guys.

And I know Travis is not on here right now, but I tweeted at him to make calls with me and he said he would and then he never did. Oh, shit. You know what, Samir? This is all going in the show. This is all going in.

Well, look, and here's the thing, alright? We didn't get over the finish line in Florida and that was quite annoying. However, however, we've passed some pretty great ballot measures in Florida. We're getting expanding votes to people who had been disenfranchised. And 2022, we got to get them. We're coming for Marco. All right. We're coming for him. All right. I just watched a video that he tweeted, you know, from the Senate of like talking about how Biden is like talking like a centrist, but governing from the far left. I'm like, come on, man. Give me a break. Give me a break, Marco. Full of shit. All right. So Samir, this is a quiz about Democrats where the center has moved. Okay. Since the ancient era of the first Obama Biden administration. Okay. Are you ready? Are you

ready for these questions? Here we go. Question one. Can't believe you're... So my first president that I remember is George H.W. Bush. So that gives us a... That gives us a different... You know, I'm getting... We can do some math. Question one. Couple years. Couple years.

In 2010, West Virginia Senator and our most conservative and hottest Democrat, Joe Manchin, released a campaign ad in which he promised to oppose certain parts of the Affordable Care Act and then shot a printout of a cap-and-trade bill with a gun. Eight years later, Manchin whipped out his gun for another campaign ad during his 2018 re-election. What did he shoot this time? Is it A, Manchin shot a printout of a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and that threatened coverage for people with pre-existing conditions? Is it B, Manchin shot a piece of paper with the words gun violence on it?

Is it C, to underscore his change of heart, Manchin shot a TV that was playing his earlier campaign ad? I am going to go with A. You got it, Samir. You got it. Question two. The 2008 Democratic Party platform had a whole section on fiscal responsibility, which said in part, America cannot afford to continue to run up huge deficits. The word deficit appears only once in the 2020 Democratic Party platform. Which of these is the sentence containing the word? Is it A, America can afford to continue to run up huge deficits? Is it B, Democrats believe that the president of the United States should not suffer from massive debilitating emotional deficits? Is it C, Democrats believe I'm going to go with A. No, it was C. It was C.

It was about a totally unrelated topic. Oh, wow. Question three. You're doing so great. I don't want you to feel bad. All right? You seem like a very, you know, you're on top of your shit. All right?

You had almost politicians like, you know, a statement about your time in Florida. I think you want to get these right. I get that. I see that. But you're doing great. Question three. Thank you. Was it a compliment?

It was barely a compliment. It was close to being an insult. Question three. Democrats were in control of the White House and Congress in 2009. Democrats in the House drafted the Waxman-Markey bill, which called for a carbon credit system to lower emissions. The bill, which required a great deal of compromise among Democrats, passed the House. It then died in the Democratic Senate, and dozens of House Democrats who supported the bill lost their seats. Under Waxman-Markey, we'd still be on track to release over 1,000 million metric tons of CO2 in the year 2050. What are the targets in Biden's climate plan? Is it A, by no later than 2035, Biden's climate plan requires the U.S. to establish a tomorrow we can all believe in? Is it B, if you drink almond milk, everyone you know will be alerted and will have an option to send you a front-facing video

chastising you for how much water it takes to grow one almond. Is it C, by no later than 2035, we eliminate climate pollution from the electricity grid, but still fund a massive infrastructure project called the PFUWA, which stands for Put Florida Underwater Anyway. Or is it D, eliminates carbon pollution from the grid by 2035 and gets to zero net emissions in America by 2050? I would be okay with C, but the answer is D. You got it. Final question. In 2008, several Democratic senators refused to go along with Obama's stimulus package if it exceeded $800 billion. And so the final price tag was $787 billion. Biden's stimulus is two and a half times that at $1.9 trillion. What are moderate Democrats

saying about it now? Is it A, John Tester said he's willing to go as high as $1.9 trillion, but only if the bill mandates a proportional increase in the cost of living? Is it B, Kyrsten Sinema said that she no longer thinks money is real. And if you really think about it, we're all just trading paper back and forth, but we are the ones who give it value, you know? Anyways, weed is legal in Arizona now. Is it C, after facing backlash back home in West Virginia for criticizing direct payments, Joe Manchin backtracked and said it's important to get more money out and that he supports

infrastructure spending as high as $4 trillion, or is it D, Mark Kelly said, from space, Earth is like a big, beautiful, silent sphere, floating, delicate, blue and green, a beacon of light and life in a desolate corner of the universe. $2 trillion, $3 trillion, our time is so very short. Anyways, weed is legal in Arizona now. I'm going to go with C. You got it. You did great, Samir. You've won the game. Thank you to Joe Manchin. Yeah, Joe Manchin. Again, is he conservative? Yes, but so hot.

We cannot help but love Joe Manchin now. That's our position. He's my new favorite senator. Catch more Virginia senators with honey is what I think. Samir, you've won the game. You did a great job. Good luck in D.C. Great work in Florida.

Thank you. When we come back, we'll end on a high note. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Because we needed this week, though a little bit less than last week, here it is, the high note. Hi, Love It, Love the Pod.

My name's Hannah. I'm from Seattle. My high note for the week is that today I went on a bike ride to the supermarket, and there was a brass band playing music outside. They were playing like the horror. And they were standing on one corner, and I was standing on another, and I was listening to them. And I noticed everyone on the street kind of just stopped,

and we all had this collective moment of listening to the music. And that brought me a lot of joy. Thank you so much. Bye. Hi, I love it. This is Jamie, and I'm a physician in southeastern Pennsylvania. My high point for the week is that I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and my father, who is a disabled vet, was able to schedule and get his first dose through the VA.

So happy that Pennsylvania went for Biden. Have a great week. Bye. Hey, John, love it. Olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé. I just want to say the best part of the week is Joe Biden being inaugurated. We should all celebrate just like we did on November 8th. Olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé. This is Nate from Peoria, Illinois.

Hi, Love It. This is Jen from Dover, New Hampshire. And my high note every week is listening to all of these high notes. They fill me with such joy and gratitude. And it's such a gift to know the goodness that's happening in other people's lives and to know the beauty that other people are experiencing. It's a real joy. And so thank you for lifting that up every single week, for being committed to showing us that there is still goodness and light happening out there. And your work matters. So thank you for all those things that you guys at Cricut are doing. Peace with you.

Have a good one. Bye. that are joining. Peace with you. Have a good one. Bye. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 323-521-9455.

Thank you to Kumail Nanjiani, Heather McGee, and everyone who called in. Joe Biden is president. Kamala Harris is vice president. Democrats control Congress. And there are only 654 days until the 2022 midterm elections.

Have a great weekend. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, our head writer and the person whose gender reveal party started the fire, Travis Helwig, Jocelyn Kaufman, Pallavi Gunalan, and Peter Miller are the writers. Thank you.