Lovett or Leave It - The Only Way Out is Through

Episode Date: October 31, 2020

Emotions are running high! Kumail Nanjiani, Stacey Abrams, Brittany Packnett Cunningham and listeners join as we cover the last week in this campaign, look ahead to the final four days of the race, and talk about our hopes, our fears, and eating our feelings. VOLUNTEER PLEASE -> votesaveamerica.com/volunteer 

Welcome to Love It or Leave It, Home Stretch. Good hands. Election season. Like Kors said, baby, you got to vote. We can really do this. No more excuses. 45 deuces. Baby, you got to vote. Wake up bright and early. Pull up to the library or do it prematurely. But baby, you got to vote. Take this step and we can win this race.

All you got to do is find your local polling place. Yeah. And I ain't talking about just you. I need you to grab your crew. Have them snag a few. Then roll up to the bingo hall and do what it do. None of that third party shit this time. Yeah, no Kanye.

That incredible homestretch song was sent in by Tyler Davis. We're going to share a few others over the course of the episode because you sent in so many great ones. This is our last show before the polls close on Tuesday night. So we are officially in the homestretch of the homestretch. The truth is the time for talking is kind of over. So that makes it tricky to have a podcast, but we're going to talk about how we're feeling. We're going to talk about what we can do right now to help make sure that we win. And I'm trying to remember that the reason we're anxious is because we care. So

as this comes out on Saturday morning, that means we have four days to chase down votes in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in a swing state of your choosing. Please, please, please go to votesaveamerica.com slash volunteer. Put your anxiousness, put your nervousness to good use. Scrolling Twitter is not actually a useful activity. I've said this

before, but I'll say it again. Twitter is a lot like Inception. You think that you're in an action sequence, but really you're just asleep. Today on the show, we are joined by Stacey Abrams and Brittany Packnett Cunningham. But first, he's a comedian, actor, and co-host of the podcast, Staying In With Kumail and Emily. Welcome back, returning champion Kumail Nanjiani. And just so everyone listening understands, we just started talking immediately because everybody's just having one endless conversation. So we just jumped right into it, and I kind of introduced him later. And I think that's fine. I think that's just fine.

You know, a couple days ago, day before yesterday, I was like, I don't know how I'm going to get through this week. Like, physically, I don't understand how I will actually get through it. How are you doing? I'm okay. You know, I wrote it down to tell you later, but I'll just tell you now. My emotions are one inch under the surface. They are right there. Yeah.

There is a fin of dread poking through the water that you can see. Yeah. Like I am on a hair trigger. I know. Hair trigger. Yeah. Hair trigger. Everything is so heightened all the time.

I had this, actually I had this thing yesterday. We're actually on this podcast now, right? Sure. I, so I do, since quarantine, I've been playing like a weekly video game, Ge Gears of War with like the same five people who are like sort of all over the country. And last night and we always, you know, end up talking politics, obviously. And last night I was like, as I was playing, I was like, I'm going to try and experiment. I'm just going to be really positive and just be super optimistic. And it works. You feel better.

Because first of all, I wouldn't know. There is a lot of reason to be optimistic. I mean, if six months ago someone showed you this polling and was like, this is how it's going to look five days before the election, you would be elated. You would be thrilled. And now we're here and we're like, oh my God, what's gonna, what's gonna happen? Yeah. So I'm trying to like, just be like, listen, everything's great. You know, I, it's also hard because this is the most involved I've been in terms of just like looking up polls and suppression efforts and everything. And I'm like, maybe this is just, I know voter suppression has been a big issue, but now I know like every little thing. I'm like, maybe this is just I know voter suppression has been a big issue, but now I know like every little thing. I'm like, maybe this is how it always is. It's always this bad.

Well, I think, you know, the stakes are so much higher. Right. If this were a Senate race and we saw these kinds of polls, we would feel more assured. We shouldn't feel assured because just a small swing, just a small unexpected result. And all of a sudden these states will move together. So there's reason to be uncertain. I told myself I would tell myself now, but actually forgot to tell myself until this week. To me, one of the lessons from 2016 is in the run-up to election day, I remember feeling this extraordinary pressure to calm people down as a podcast host. And we did it, right? We said, here are the reasons why we see some good signs. Here are the places where we're

nervous. But basically, don't panic. It wasn't don't panic, don't work. It was just don't panic. But what I realized in hindsight was it just doesn't fucking matter how we feel this week. Exactly. It doesn't matter at all. Like, okay, you feel like shit because you think we're going to lose Florida? We might. If we win the election, we will forget this moment entirely. And if we lose, if we lose, this is joy compared to the grief and panic and anger and fear that we will feel. This is dread and dread sucks. It feels really bad, but it's a pre-emotion. Right.

It's fear of an outcome. Well, let's prevent that outcome or let's live inside of that outcome. But I'm trying to remember that, that as much as I feel anxious, I was saying this to some of the crooked folks, like it feels like five minutes before the school play all the time.

Yes. And like nobody's in costume. And somehow it feels, it's five minutes before the school play all the time yes and like nobody's in costume and somehow it feels it's five minutes before the school play and it's getting more heightened but it's still five minutes before the school play like somehow every moment i'm getting more worked up but i feel like time isn't moving it's just the stakes are getting higher you know what you said is about how you feel is not going to change anything. I think that that's very insightful. And it's something I had with my work, like with acting.

I used to like get really nervous for it. And I thought that being nervous was part of the process. And then I was like, no, that actually hurts me. Like it had become like sense memory where I was like, all right, time to do a scene, time to get nervous. Heart starts beating. You get a little sweaty that stuff and I realized like no no no that's actually bad that's not part of the process and that's exactly I think you're right with this thing too this fear this dread isn't part of the process it doesn't like do anything I decided

about a month ago you know we're all we're still in quarantine for the most part. And so I was like, all right, my job for the next month and a half is going to be trying to get people to vote. That's how I will feel. I'll donate and I'll try and do as many Zooms, panels, whatever I can do. This is going to be my job. And that'll make me feel a little bit better. And that really has made me feel better. You know, the only time I don't feel that dread is when I'm like, that moment that you donate and you get that email, it wears off so quickly though, because Emily's like,

hey, you got to chill out a little bit. ActBlue is like a dealer outside of school. Yeah, no, totally. Because I'll read something, I'll see like, you know, your buddy Jon Favreau will be like, hey, this race is pretty close. I'm like, okay, all right, gotta go donate here, I guess.

Because, you know, I've maxed out what I can give to Biden. But then there's all these other little Senate races where you're like, all right, I gotta be able to say that I did something. And I know that that probably barely moves the needle,

but helps me feel better. Look, I would rather everyone believe Trump can win than believe he can't. Right. And if that is the lesson we took from 2016, that's a good lesson to help get us out of this thing. Yeah. I mean, look at how many people have already voted, you know?

Well, look, obviously we were already inside of the show. I did not introduce him, but I will do so now. Do it now. He's a comedian, actor, co-host of the podcast, staying in with Kumail and Emily. Please welcome back returning champion Kumail Nanjiani. Hi. We jumped right in.

Thanks for having me. We jumped right in. Thanks for being here. Look, here's the thing. The entire country is having one unending conversation, so I'm glad that we just jumped right in. I think that's right. Everyone, this's the thing. The entire country is having one unending conversation. So I'm glad that we just jumped right in. I think that's right. Everyone, this conversation just continues.

I will walk out of this room and begin it with somebody else. You will walk out. You will talk to Emily and continue this. You will tweet about it. You will text about it. We are all having one conversation. So let's get into it. What an election.

Great cover, by the way. Really, really well done. You made a mistake and then you turned it into gold. Dude, fine. How are you sleeping? Am I sleeping? I take an Ambien and a ball peen hammer. Okay, so that works.

Every night, so I take the Ambien and then I take the hammer and just give myself a kind of Wiley coyote-sized lump. Yeah. It rises up. It's like bald and towers above your head. Yeah, yeah. Little bird circle.

Yeah. Little bird circle. But they're Nate Silver. They're Nate Silver's head. They're just like that. Little fivey fox. Like, I count fivey foxes when I try and sleep at night. We like to start out with as dumb a joke as humanly possible because the stakes are so high,

emotions are so fraught. So let me start with the worst joke we could come up with this week. Are you ready? Wow, so ready. Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court giving conservatives a 6-3 majority. This whole thing has been quite a rollercoaster ride.

Amy Coney Barrett, more like Amy Coney Island. Okay. It hasn't, for me, it hasn't even been a roller coaster because we knew what was going to happen. It's just been like a drop into despair. But that's maybe a good example of release, right? Where you're like, listen, this is lost. There's nothing we can do about this. This sucks.

Focus on the election. Do what you can. This battle is gone. But if we win the next one, maybe we can do something about it. Yeah sucks. Focus on the election. Do what you can. This battle is gone. But if we win the next one, maybe we could do something about it. Yeah, I think that's right. I also think, too, it should be a lesson. I think one of the reasons why there was a desire to not even pay attention to it because there was an understanding that ordinary Democratic politics wouldn't make a difference, that these people had decided that they were not receptive to pressure, to political pressure. And it's a reminder that what we're fighting for in this election is obviously to defeat Donald Trump

and elect Democrats, but also just restoring the basic notion of elected officials responsive to their constituents and responsive to normal democratic pressures, which these, this group of Senate Republicans have decided no longer apply to them either because they don't believe in them or they think they're going to lose anyway. Obviously, that's that's very true. It's just also a really important thing is just the level of discourse. You know, the the sort of hateful statements that have become part of public political conversation as if they're like valid discussions and arguments. I think it's really eroded our community in the last four years. So I know that, like, hopefully if we can win, climbing back from this is going to be

work. But I will feel like, you know, I had this thing like a couple of years ago, I went out of the country and as soon as I got off the plane, I like felt lighter. I was like, oh, wow, everyone in America is carrying this heaviness on their shoulders. And when you're, you know, when we got to London, couldn't feel it anymore. I was like, oh, my God. So I'm excited, hopefully, for a little bit of that feeling to go because it's not just us that's feeling it. I don't think MAGA people are happy either. They seem fucking miserable and angry. Look, I mean, if we get rid of Trump, I think we

have to start to ask ourselves the question, how did someone like that become so hard to defeat? It took so much to get rid of him. It took so much to dislodge this evil, obviously unfit person. And we have to do two things at once, which is be honest about the role that racism and racial animus and grievance and white identity politics played in the rise of Donald Trump, while also being open to a conversation about how much pain these people misplaced when they embraced this person, right? That both of those things can be true. You know, economic uncertainty has become a joke and it is a joke.

But at the same time, there is a real connection between the role that like masculinity and the refusal to admit that you have needs, that you feel a loss of dignity, a lack of agency, a lack of control, and demagogues and others harnessing that feeling, that sense of indignity, that lack of control and directing it towards the other, towards immigrants, towards electing Republicans who will do nothing for you, convincing you that you don't need healthcare, that you don't need social services, that you don't need a mask at this rally,

that you can be left outside in the fucking cold in Omaha, that you don't have worth. We have to like figure out how to have this conversation about human worth and why believing in it is okay. It's okay to be, to need the government. It's okay to need community. It's okay to be, to be afraid, to be scared, to be uncertain. So yeah, there's a lot to do.

You know what, Camille, there's a lot to do. Yeah, but- There's a lot to do. Let's get through Tuesday or Friday or whatever it is. Do you think we're gonna know Wednesday? Will we have a sense? This happened in 2016. It's happening now. Friends text me and they just say, send me your electoral college map.

Send me your map. Yeah. I would have in 2016 taken a shot at it and shared it. But I am honestly like this isn't like a cop out. Like I am not allowing myself to predict. I see no value in it. I really don't. I am going to be to predict. I see no value in it. I really don't. I am going to be watching Pennsylvania very closely.

I'm going to be watching Florida very closely. I am going to pray to the gods of Florida and Pennsylvania to deliver those states and deliver them relatively quickly. I just... North Carolina. Whatever polytheistic state-based god is your god, pray to that God, right? It could be Arizona. Arizona.

It could be Michigan. It could be Wisconsin. I, in my household, we grew up praying to the God of Florida and Pennsylvania. That's my tradition. Those are fickle gods. Those gods, their motivations are oblique. Yeah. Yeah.

I took communion from gritty. So back to this week, both of us are in this, we're both in this, I'm in the same place, this sort of purely reflective, not in my stomach place. But so as voters dropped off ballots and voted early across the country, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows went on CNN and offered a closing message.

We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigation. Why aren't we going to get control of the pandemic? Because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu. Yeah, but why not make efforts to contain it? Well, we are making efforts to contain it. By running all over the country, not wearing a mask? That's what the vice president's doing. We can get into the back and forth. Meadows went on to say, and another thing, I don't think he can read. That was, of course, only one part of the message.

Jared Kushner also went on Fox and Fred's and said this. One thing we've seen in a lot of the black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful. Kushner went on to say, this is actually not that easy to write a joke about because it's beyond parody. As I am a famous trust fund kid whose own father, when not committing acts of white collar crime promised $2.5 million to Harvard before I was accepted to be paid after I was accepted. Kushner went on to say, you can tell they're not trying since some of them aren't even the

president's son-in-law. Meanwhile, as a third wave of coronavirus hits the country, a second waves hit the White House, at least five aides to Mike Pence, the leader of the coronavirus task force tested positive, including Pence's body man and his chief of staff. I used to think it was so silly when televangelists like Pat Robertson would say that God had chosen sides in an election. But now I just, now I just think it's true. I do. I just, I just believe it. I don't even think that's a joke.

I think I actually believe that. That's it, I'm in. It's really, you know, it really does feel like the timing is so, also, I never heard this phrase,

body man, and now I throw it around. That's just what we call, like, an assistant? Yeah. It's more than that, though. It's somebody who's always with them. Like President Obama had Reggie

Love. Hillary Clinton had Huma Abedin. Like there's a person that's always with the candidate. So it's like, you know, there is an executive assistant who's usually at the Senate office or the Oval Office or somewhere, but there's a person who's just always on the road. That's the person who's like, got

the Sharpie, got the Purell, has the notebook, knows who to respond to, takes the notes. Like on Veep. Yes, yes. Tony Scott on Veep. Yeah, great. Also this week, the Lincoln Project, famous for viral anti-Trump ads by never-Trump Republicans,

announced that they are planning to turn into a full-fledged media company after the election. Just like Lincoln, they hope to celebrate a hard-fledged media company after the election. Just like Lincoln, they hope to celebrate a hard-won victory with some light entertainment. Oh, no. What? I think it's fine. I think it's a fine joke. I think it's a good joke. You got killed at the play.

I know. I remember. I remember reading about it on Twitter. What is the play called? It's something called, like, you know, My Fancy Aunt Martha. Something like that. Was it a great play? I don't think it has that much of a legacy. What is the play that Lincoln died at? The legacy is that Lincoln died during the play. Oh, it's not My Aunt Martha. It's not My Aunt Fancy.

It's Our American Cousin. Yeah, I've never heard of that show. Well, look, I mean, you know, the reviews were overshadowed. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I think you get rid of that play. Countless Trump supporters were stranded in the freezing cold for hours, and several ended up in the hospital after Trump's rally in Omaha concluded,

and hundreds were trapped miles from their cars and unable to get to their buses because the path was obstructed by this giant, obvious heaving metaphor. And in the face of Trump's ongoing threats against voters and political opponents, 24 US attorneys and all Republicans have publicly called Donald Trump a threat to the rule of law in our country and endorsed Joe Biden for president when reached for comment on the tarmac in Omaha, a shivering baby boomer in a MAGA hat who has an autographed copy of Dan Bongino's book said, seems like Biden is better at getting Republicans on the bus than Trump.

Oh, are you surprised that I made this self-aware joke? Little gallows tarmac humor. I can't feel my toes, but I think the virus is a hoax and I still love Trump. Yeah. Just a long journey for that one. No, I like it. It's very, it feels very real.

Imagine being in the hospital because of exposure, because you were stuck outside after Donald Trump left you in the dark. In the cold. After a rally in Omaha, in the cold, in the freezing Omaha November cold. Did you see just one today in and I think in Florida, people were passing out because it was so hot. They had to like spray people with water and people were passing out. And they're all super spreader events, right? We now know that there's a real correlation between local rises in cases and where this Trump tour, this super spreader tour goes.

It's legitimately pro-virus. It's pretty amazing. Do you think, you know, I know that they on purpose didn't want to do any contact tracing. Will we ever find out the full fallout from like all these events and like that Rose Garden massacre?

Will we ever, you think, get numbers on, these are the people who actually died from this? So I've always said, coming full circle, the period of time I've always been most worried about was the time after Donald Trump is no longer gonna be president, but is still in office. That's when it's going out of business sale on national parks, it's shredding time.

It's every lobbyist fantasy executive order. It's the destruction of materials, of emails, of what have you. So I don't know what happens in that interim, but I do think that in the ordinary course of business, you would expect a lot of these records to be preserved. There's also privacy concerns around people releasing their own medical information. So I think likely we will never know the full scope of these records to be preserved. There's also privacy concerns around people releasing their own medical information. So I think likely we will never know the full scope of these things. I mean, they did it. They covered it up.

We know a lot, but we don't know it all. No, we don't know it all. But we know it was real bad. Yeah, that's the conclusion of the last four years. Yeah. We'll know a lot. We won't know it all. And we'll know it was real bad.

OK, before we go to break, Kamau, this week, we asked our audience to finish a sentence and we're going to share some of their answers throughout the show, but we'd love to hear your answer first. Here's the prompt. I'm anxious, but finish the sentence. That's all you have to do. I mean, I'm trying to find something unique to say, but the first thing that comes to my mind is I'm anxious, but I feel very, very hopeful when I see these early voting numbers, when I see those people standing in lines. Obviously, that means two things, you know. One, it's voter suppression, but two, it is inspiring to see people fighting against a system that's been designed to silence their voices, to not count their votes. So I do feel ultimately, I am extremely anxious,

but I do feel hopeful. I've always been pretty optimistic and it's been hard to hold onto that these four years, but I do feel, I feel hopeful and I feel optimistic and I, and I think we can, we can come out of this. It's not going to be easy, but I believe. What's your Tuesday night cheat meal? Oh my God. I haven't even, you know, when I think of Tuesday,

I like, my brain starts short circuiting. It's like just numbers and like green squares are flying around. I don't know. Actually, Emily today was like,

so what are we going to do Tuesday? And I was like, I don't know. And I ran away. I think I'm going to get just a burger, fries and a bunch of desserts. That's what I'm going to do. That's what I need. Just pastries and cakes. That's always my cheat meal. Well, I, I'm going to try, I want to see what I can do to help during the day. There's some last minute get out the vote stuff that people can do that. We're going to direct people towards Tuesday night. You know, we're going to do a brief live stream before the returns come in. I do think it might just be a pizza night. You might just have to say, you know what? I need a pizza to be here.

I'm changing my, I'm changing to pizza. That's it. I'm changing to pizza. I just think you need a box that you can go back to. That's like classic. You just need that box. It's just going to be there. Yeah. There's just always more pizza in there.

It's always in there. You know, whatever happens, there's more pizza in those boxes. Yeah. Yeah. Kumail Nanjiani, thank you so much for being here.

This was a delight. I'll see you on the other side. Thank you. We'll see what happens when we cross, we're going to cross the event horizon and we're going to find out what's in this black hole. Yeah, I think that's right. Do you know The Watchman? Do you know that comic book? You know how there's like a Dr. Manhattan can only see up to a certain date. He

can't see past that because of tachyons or something. That's how the election is to me. I can only see to Tuesday and then I don't know what happens. I want you to know I did the exact same analogy but around the show devs. Oh yeah, I love devs too. Same thing. It's the same thing. You can't see past what happens.

There's a day, yeah. That's it. This quantum computer can only see so far. Yeah. Bye Kumail, thank you so much. Thank you. When we come back

I'll be joined by Stacey Abrams but to take us into the break here's another Homestretch theme song by Jimmy Moreland. The most important election of our lifetimes. What we do will matter for decades to come. In 20 years, what will you say when asked what you did in these final days? Do you think another tweet is gonna be

the thing that gets us 54 Senate seats? We've got to vote like never before And leave no doubt Will you just anxiously refresh 538 And leave it up to fate Will you whine, will you kvetch Or will you do all you can do in the homestretch We choose hope over fear

We can do this Let's get to work people Let's get to work, people. Let's bring this home. I'm anxious, but I'm going to make chili anyway. I make chili every election night. And unfortunately, I made chili the night Donald Trump was elected president. But you know what?

I'm not going to let him ruin that for me. I'm making chili this election night. And Donald Trump's not going to ruin that for me, too. It's going to be delicious and comforting. Hey, Elizabeth. It's Erica. I'm anxious, but I'm also super excited to make calls over the next few days to do everything I possibly can to make sure we win this thing. And for the past few months, I've really tried to live by the mantra, you will never regret doing something, but you may always regret not doing anything. So let's finish this thing strong. Bye. And we're back. She is the founder of Fair Fight, the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, author of the book Our Time Is Now, and she is featured in the film All

In, The Fight for Democracy, which is streaming now on Amazon Prime. Please welcome back to the show, Stacey Abrams. Hello. Thank you for having me. Thanks for being here. So we are three days out from the end of voting. What are your concerns right now? Where is Fair Fight focusing its efforts? Fair Fight is still in all of the battleground states. The 20 we set up, the two where we're not doing as much because we were really good at it last time. Louisiana and Kentucky are in pretty good shape, but we're still watching Kentucky with a bit of a jaundiced eye. But we're watching every state because we

know that the Trump campaign and the RNC intend to have an army of poll watchers or poll intimidators across the country in 17 battleground states. Georgia is one of them, but so is Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona. So you name the state where the race is close, they're going to be there. We're watching to make sure that they don't interfere, but we're also watching to make sure that voters do not stand in lines that serve as, unfortunately, sort of a modern version of a poll tax, where you have to spend hours in line, losing your wages, not being able to take care of your family, all to cast a ballot, because your zip code should not determine the quality of your voting experience.

So what are you seeing in Georgia right now? How has it changed since your race in 2018? What lessons did you draw from that experience that you're applying now? Because, you know, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the campaigns are fighting for Georgia pretty hard. And we have these incredibly consequential Senate races. Well, number one, we're just grateful that people realize we weren't making it up when we said Georgia was a battleground state. And luckily, we've seen substantial investment at every level, including the work we're doing to flip the statehouse.

But we still face a secretary of state who routinely abdicates his responsibility or blames it on someone else. He follows in the steps of his predecessor, the current governor. We know that we have been able to mitigate the harm of exact match. We've been able to address some of the challenges with absentee ballots. What we're facing now are new machines that basically broke down or that the system collapsed in June. So we're making sure that the system works for every voter. So we're working closely with counties to ensure they have all of the equipment they need, the technicians they need. But we're also paying very special attention to lines not becoming a disincentive to voting. I know people get excited when they see long lines, but that's usually a signal not simply of enthusiasm, but a failure of preparation. And we want people

to demand that we have an efficient, effective election that does not countenance, allowing people to stand in line for six, seven, eight hours. This is coming out on Saturday morning. We are four days left, really. What can people listening do to have the biggest impact to your mind? Either it's helping Fair Fight or On the Ground. What do you need help doing? What do you think is the most useful thing people can do? Number one, reach out to every human you've ever met who shares your values and make sure they have a plan to vote. It does not matter if you owe them money, if they owe you money, if you had a tiff and you can't remember whose fault it was. It was your fault. Get over it. Get to them because we need their votes. Number two, we need folks to sign up. Go

to FairFight2020.org. We need volunteers still. We're going to have to chase a lot of ballots, a lot of absentee ballots where people made mistakes and they can fix them. And a lot of states, because of Fair Fight, because of Mark Elias, because of so many good actors, we've been able to improve the rules for a number of voters many good actors, we've been able to improve the rules for a number of voters. And so we want to be able to make sure they know they can fix mistakes. And in the states where we can't fix the mistakes, we want to be on the phone making sure they don't make mistakes. And so we need as many volunteers as we can get. And then last but not least, just make sure that we are doing everything in our communities. If we know that a line needs

to be warmed, you know that somebody needs a lawn chair or a sun hat or a scarf, go give it to them. But do what you can to make sure that we keep people in line prepared to vote because the best way to defeat voter suppression is to overwhelm it with voter engagement and voter turnout. So I don't know about you, but I have found in just the last couple of days that obviously we're all aware of the stakes, but the emotion of these past four years has sort of been hitting me personally, honestly, just the kind of scale of what we've been up against, how long this fight has been. I don't know, you know, you've always struck me as someone who just gets to work. You've never struck me as being as navel-gazy

as I like to be. But I'm just curious, what are you... Look, we've been in this fight for four years. We've seen more activation, more enthusiasm, more engagement than maybe ever before in our lives, an unprecedented protest movement, all in response to this threat and this desire to actually deliver on progressive government. As you think about where we're at right now, about this fight over the past four years, what's on your mind? What are you reflecting on? I'm reflecting on the fact that I'm a Southerner.

I'm a daughter of the South, and I look at the four years, but I put it in the context of my 46 years on this earth. And I think about the progress we've made in Georgia, the progress we're making in South Carolina, where Lindsey Graham is getting his butt kicked by Jamie Harrison, where Mike Espy is making Mississippi competitive, where Texas is legitimately a battleground state. I'm thinking about Arizona, where we're about to pick up a senator.

And I'm thinking about all of in Florida, where we can get good done. I believe in the South. I've believed in it my whole life. And as bad as these last four years have been for America, it is a reflection of what for some of us has been the last 40 years, and certainly the last 20. Having someone who doesn't respect humanity, having demagogues who feel comfortable saying anything about the people they lead, refusing access to healthcare, all of those things that Donald Trump proves an excess for so many of us, it's been our daily life. And it is such an exciting moment because we know we can not only get a better president with national support,

the South is going to do its part to get that done. We've got Roy Cooper in North Carolina. We've got Andy Beshear in Kentucky. We've got John Bel Edwards in Louisiana. We've got Andy Beshear in Kentucky. We've got John Bel Edwards in Louisiana. We've got a region that is on the rise. And so my sanguinity comes from this. I know that every election is a part of the process towards progress. There's never a moment where we get to just sit down and exhale, although I will say when we get rid of Donald Trump, we should all do as much as we can to exhale and then take

a deep breath because we got to deal with everybody else. But more than anything, I'm driven by this belief that we can get it done. And so, you know, no sleep till Brooklyn. So we're asking all of our, we asked our listeners to submit their answer to this question. I'll ask you what your answer is. So we're asking people to finish the sentence. The sentence is, I'm anxious, but? Determined. Determined. Determined. Determined. What are you going to eat on election night? What are you...

When you're stress watching, I assume... Look, I don't... Look, you seem to be preacher naturally sanguine, as you say. But I know that I'm going to stress eat my way through election night. I'm just curious, what's on your agenda? Obviously, you want to fight for every single vote. But what are we snacking on? You all have spoken with Lauren Groh-Orgo. I think it's very lovely that you think I'll be

allowed time to eat. But if I can sneak something in, it will be Pringles because they are my snack of choice. Thank you so much for taking the time. Everybody listening, you go to fairfight2020.org to help. Can lawyers help right now? If there's a lawyer losing, what do you need a lawyer to do? We need a lawyer to go to the same website. We've got a special place for lawyers. And as one, that was not a joke, we need lawyers. Special place for lawyers, you say? Yeah.

We need all the help we can get, but lawyers in particular, because we're going to have to do a lot of work to make sure every vote that gets cast gets counted. Stacey Abrams, thank you so much for joining us. I hope, I pray that we get that chance to take a deep breath before the real work begins, you know? Thanks, John. Thanks for doing such a great job keeping people informed. Thank you so much to Stacey Abrams for being here to take us into the break.

Here is another incredible Homestretch theme song by Gina Bellevue. I'm hitting the ground running cause it's never too late. Turn it around. We're going to turn it around now. Yeah. We're going to turn it around. We're going to turn it around. We're going to turn it around. Hey, hey, hey.

Yeah. We're going to turn it around. Turn it around. They say we're on the homestretch. Hi, John. This is Doug calling from Indiana. I am always anxious, but my boyfriend just made an almond flour and strawberry jam cake

that we saw in the British Bake Off, and it's just wow. And we've also been sharing Andy Ruff's campaign ad with everyone we can. It's a brilliant and funny folk song to unseat Tennessee Trey from Indiana's 9th. We're pulling for a blue Midwest wave. Thanks for all you do. Hi, Love It or Leave It. My name is Cynthia Colling from Denver. And I am anxious, but every day when I teach my students online or in person, they show flexibility and courage and kindness in ways that adults struggle to model for them.

But it eases my anxiety that they are already better than us. Thank you. And we're back. She is an activist, writer, educator, and host of the new podcast, Undistracted, coming out soon wherever you get your podcasts. Please welcome back Brittany Packnett Cunningham. It's good to see you. Hey, John. It's good to see you always.

We actually launched today on the day I'm talking to you. So our first episode is out. We talked with Cecile Richards about the power of women and intersectionality and the 53%. We had a good conversation. Well, everybody should check it out. Thank you. If you've listened to this show, you've heard Brittany many times. So you Well, everybody should check it out. Thank you. If you've listened to this show, you've heard Brittany many times, so you know why you should check out the show.

Brittany, thanks for being here. So I was eager to talk to you because I don't know about you, but I am obviously nervous, but I'm also feeling reflective about where we're at. And in many ways, you know, the time for talking is over. We need people to get out there and vote, get their friends to vote, get out the vote, protect the vote. But what I wanted to talk about is the role of protests these past four years. You know, four years ago, Donald Trump is elected. We see protests start across the country.

Four years later, his first term is ending with protests. We see an outpouring in Philadelphia and other cities. What for you is the lesson about the role protests played in this period? There was so much anger and uncertainty and yet this desire to kind of be out in the streets. I always believe that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. And protest is one of the ways that we demonstrate that, that there is something visceral that happens when you can visually see or participate in the coming together of hundreds, if not thousands of people in one space and time who are all singing the same chorus, right?

Who are all singing from the same songbook. That is a powerful experience and it communicates the will of the people unlike anything else ever can. Calling your members of Congress is critically important. Writing the letters, sending the emails, using the hashtags, you know, going to the meetings, all of that stuff matters. But there's nothing quite like the symphony of voices that come together across every axis of difference to demand justice for ourselves and one another. We don't get the protests of the Trump presidency without the protests against police violence and for racial justice that had been occurring for the years before. We don't get the protests in the Trump presidency without Trayvon Martin protests,

without protests in Ferguson, without protests in Baltimore, without protests in New York City. We don't have an American electorate that is reminded of the duty of the office of citizen without the thousands of nameless protesters who sacrificed everything to actually call America into its own creed. And so, you know, I don't know if Donald Trump will go down in history as the most protested president. I know he probably will rank highly in them, but most certainly there's no way that his legacy can be calculated without discussing just how many people found their voice in order to scream out against what he was doing. And I'm hopeful that our protest is successful at the ballot box. And that if we need to call on protest again after election day, I shouldn't say if when we need to call on protest again after election day,

I shouldn't say if, when we need to call on protest again after election day, whether it is about the election results or it is about the decisions of this newly highly conservative Supreme Court, or it is about actions and behaviors that are still being taken on the streets when police officers pull out their guns and kill people with impunity, or any of the many injustices that we're seeing across the globe, whenever it is time for us to call back on that skill of protest, I hope that we do so in a way that honors the folks who brought us to this point. And that centers us in a vision of America and of the world that is bigger than ourselves. I'm glad you raised that because that was sort of on my mind too, that I remember just

at the airport protests, right after Trump becomes president, I remember that there were people there that seemed like they'd never been in a protest before. There were lawyers who were saying, I'm a lawyer, I'm here. I've never done something like this before. What do I do? But you saw Occupy protests. You saw Black Lives Matter protests. You saw union protesters. And then this summer, you know, we talked about this, I believe, at the time, that it was genuinely positive development to see a truly like multi-ethnic, multi-racial coalition take to the streets.

And that was reflected in polling when a lot of pundits said, oh, this is going to be a backlash. Trump's going to win on law and order. There's going to be resentment towards these protests. And we haven't really seen that as much as anybody would have expected. What do we do to continue that solidarity? If we are able to remove this lightning rod that is Trump, how do we keep people that maybe never protested before in this fight when it becomes less about this heinous monster and more about delivering progressive results, fighting for actual positive changes when there's less of that monomaniacal villainy coming from the White House, you know? Yes. When there is not an orange monster to unite us all,

there is a question as to who's going to stay in the fight. So I'm glad that you asked this because it's important for all of us to remember, nothing becomes suddenly perfect on November the 3rd or November the 4th. There is a ton of work left to be doing, both to undo what this last administration has done, and to see our way through the very immediate crisis of this pandemic. Everybody's acting like COVID is over. And just because you're tired or something doesn't mean that it has ended, okay? COVID is still happening. We're seeing the number spike yet again. All of the medical professionals are saying we're in a third wave. It is continuing to affect people economically. It is continuing to affect people's health. There is a story that has been circulating about how COVID decimated a black family at the same time that Trump was dealing with COVID.

And of course, he was in a suite at Walter Reed and getting an experimental cocktail of drugs. Meanwhile, the matriarch of this family was a teacher who was quarantined to her own basement. And while he was getting that drug cocktail, she was getting get well cards from her fifth graders, right? So the vast inequalities that this pandemic exposed will still exist after November the 3rd. And it will be up to us to say no more for as long as it takes for there to actually be no more. In terms of how we keep people in the fight, I think one of the things we do is we just get better at telling the truth. Now that I spend all this time, not just on, you know, my podcast, but also on MSNBC,

I actually had a seat to be able to say the things on television that I used to tweet in 2014. Because I used to have to tweet in 2014 the narrative that mainstream media is running away with around looters and violence is actually misplaced. And to use James Baldwin's language, obscene, because it is actually Black communities that have been continuously looted, Brown communities, indigenous communities

have been continuously looted in this country. And ultimately it was the violence of the state that brought people out to the streets in the first place. So why don't you care more about people's lives than a television set? And now six years later, not only am I in seat to be able to push back against this law and order narrative from Trump, there are now hosts that are doing that, right? And veteran journalists who've been doing that. So it is a very different conversation

because of the protests and the narrative shifting that has been happening over the last several years. So one of the things we can continue to do is be dogged about the sometimes complicated, the sometimes difficult, the sometimes infuriating, the sometimes convicting truth of what we see happening before us, that it is not and was never just about one person, that it was always about massive structural and systemic inequality. And the more I think we tell people that truth, the more they can start to see how their particular gifts, talents, and impact can move the lever on one of those injustices or another. Ultimately, it's about everybody finding their place in this, that if you're not going to be out in the streets, then you need to

be engaging in the form of protest wherever you are. And I'm glad we're having this conversation now. And there's part of me that thinks, oh, this is a little premature. We should be talking about this if we are successful, right? Because the fight looks very different. There's two different versions of this fight. But I have come to personally understand in a way that I didn't before the connection between what allowed Trump's authoritarian to take hold and get so far and systemic injustice in policing and systemic injustice in policing and systemic

injustice in our immigration system that it actually took this period of time for me to understand not to know it intellectually yes but to feel it deeply right oh this coarsening this tolerance for gross abuse this coarsens our culture this makes it possible yeah for someone like trump to put all of us white white, black, gay, straight, transgender in jeopardy, that racism is a form of callousness and that callousness is a poison and that it can spread. So my hope is that people remember this period of time. They remember what it felt like to be inside of this moment. Brittany, as you think back on these four years, you know, there's a question we've been asking everybody to kind of finish this sentence, which is, I'm anxious, but.

I'm anxious, but my ancestors' blood is running through my veins. Which means I do not give up easily. I'm anxious, but I know the stuff from whence I come, as my mother would say. I'm determined to press forward for the sake of my ancestors and the sake of my own future. It may not be ideal, but there's no other choice. And before I let you go, Tuesday night, it's going to be a hard, long, strange evening that may stretch out into a week. What's your comfort food going to be? What are we doing to feed our feelings?

Love it. I don't know why I knew that was going to be the question you were going to ask. I promise you I didn't know. But as you started talking, I started thinking about the big bowl of grits I'm going to make. Okay. To be clear, salty grits, not sugary grits, because sugary grits are an abomination before God, and I will never allow them to touch my lips. But I will have a big bowl of salt grits. Maybe there'll be some shrimp on top.

Maybe it'll just be butter. Either way, I will enjoy myself. Brittany Packnett Cunningham, thank you so much for being here. The new podcast is Undistracted. A delight, as always, to see you, even in these dark times. Thanks for talking us through it. And see you on the other side. See you on the other side. Love it. Thanks to Brittany Packnett Cunningham for being here. When we come back, we'll bring back the rant wheel one last time before this election. But before we do that, here's another Homestretch theme song by Ethan Mathias. to get the fuck out and get those ballots in. Yeah, it's been four long years. And sure, we've still got fears. But nothing they can do is gonna scare us

from voting Biden and Harris. Yeah, cause we're in the home stretch. The home stretch. We've got one more task, so put on your mask. Cause we're in the homestretch. The homestretch. We've got one more task, so put on your mask, keeping hopes afloat. The homestretch. We're in the homestretch. Enjoy, love it or leave it it and be sure to vote. Hi, Love It. This is Liz in Pennsylvania, and I am anxious, but this week I passed 3,000 voters that I've contacted in one way, postcards, letters, phone calls, texts, and I am proud of myself and proud of the thousands of people across the country who are fighting for hope and democracy and triumphing over all of those

people who want to get us to just be fearful and hateful, and we are fighting against them every day. Thank you. Hello, Lovett. I'm Anxious Butt Man. That's right, Anxious Butt Man, hero to all those with nerve-related bowel movement issues. Has election anxiety got you pooping too much or too little? Just shine that bright butt light in the sky and anxious butt man will be on his way with anti-constipation medicine or anti-diarrheal medicine and a roll of toilet paper, depending on your situation. You'll never worry again about the frequency of your nervous poops with anxious butt man

at your side. Biden 2020. Thank you very much. And we're back. Now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works. We spin the wheel wherever it lands. We talk about the topic.

We wanted to bring it back one last time because since we've been recording remotely, we haven't had a live audience. It has been harder to do the rant wheel, but we wanted to do it. So we're going to do it. This week on the wheel, we have Nate Silver's model, Schitt's Creek bandwagon fans, Kim Kardashian's island retreat, Facebook, drinking on election night, fireworks in Los Angeles,

people who say thanks for coming to my TED Talk, and the election. Let's spin The Wheel. It has landed on the election. What a fitting way to end this show. So I was going to tell you that I feel pretty emotional and reflective. I said that this whole show, but I really do feel that way. Maybe you feel the same way, but there's been something on my mind.

I can't get it out of my head. And it's an essay that I love that I think about all the time. And I've been thinking about it a lot lately. It's by Lee Sandlin and it's called Losing the War. I really recommend you take the time to read it. If you Google Lee Sandlin, Losing the War, it will pop up and you can read it. It's about World War II, but it's also about what we remember and what we forget about our past. And there's this one passage that's been stuck in my head, so I wanted to share it. And here it is. There is another and simpler reason the war has been forgotten. People wanted to forget it. It had gone on for so many years, had destroyed so much,

had killed so many. Most U.S. casualties were in the final year of fighting. When it came to an end, people were glad to be rid of everything about it. That was what surprised commentators about the public reaction in America and Europe when news broke that Germany and then Japan had at last surrendered. In the wild celebrations that followed, nobody crowed, our enemies are destroyed. Nobody even yelled, we won. What they all said instead was, the war is over. I've been thinking about that a lot, this idea that getting rid of Trump isn't winning, it's the end of something. And I know how much we hope that we win this election. And I know it's driven so many of us for so long.

But what I'm trying to remember now in this moment of anxiety, in this moment of fear and dread, is that winning the election, this great, important, historic effort to win this election is not enough because the reason we are nervous and the reason we are anxious is because this is closer than it should be. And the fact that Trump can win, even if he loses, is a reminder of how much work we still have to do. For me, removing Trump, I'm trying to remember, is a relief, but it won't be victory because victory is dismantling piece by piece the system that put him in power. The spread of misinformation on Fox News and Facebook, the capture of the courts by right-wing ideologues, the success of anti-democratic policies in suppressing a vote.

And it means we have to attack the deeper, less tangible elements of this crisis. The decline of community, the narcissism of social media, the desire for simple answers that confirm our biases, unchecked corruption and abuse in the economy, and the cynicism that it unleashes that to be honest, to be fair, to be decent is to be sucker in America. That is ultimately what Donald Trump's victory represents. That playing by the rules doesn't matter anymore, that that's how it used to be. But now we live by reality television's rules. And the goal isn't to make friends, the goal is to win. And so that's what I'm thinking about. That's the context I'm trying to keep in my mind as I wait for these returns on Tuesday. And the other piece of this, and it's something I talked about with Brittany, is the way in which the injustices in our society enabled someone like Donald Trump to rise in the first place. The way in which masculinity has been a gateway drug for racism and the way in which the right wing in this country

has tapped into real pain and a real lack of agency that people feel and directed it, directed it towards these terrible ends. So it is our job to win this election, but it's also our job to remember to not lose sight of what we felt in these years and how hard we had to fight. So thank you everybody so much who has been part of this fight from the beginning. I wanted to close with some of the facts about what you have done as part of Vote Save America. These numbers are incredible. And I do think it is worth pausing and reflecting on just how much work everybody listening has done. We have raised over $42 million.

285,000 people have signed up to adopt a state. 4,000 have joined our volunteer community. Almost 8 million calls made. 6.5 million texts sent. 2.5 million total unregistered voters contacted through all of VSA's registration efforts. unregistered voters contacted through all of VSA's registration efforts. We have recruited 27,000 poll workers from all 50 states in D.C. and 1,700 voter protection lawyers. That is incredible. That is an incredible response inside of this crisis. So thank you to everybody who has worked so hard. I'm rambling. I don't care. Whatever. That's the end of our show. Thank you

all so much. there are three days left sign up for a shift right now at votesaveamerica.com slash volunteer to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to hold the house

to win back the Senate to elect Democrats up and down the ballot thank you to Kamal Nanjiani Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Stacey Abrams thank you to everyone out there

volunteering and calling and texting and donating and spending every waking moment trying to win this election have a great weekend and let moment trying to win this election. Have a great weekend and let's go fucking win this thing. Finally, to end our show, here is our very last Homestretch theme song by a band called The Wiffs. Thank you. That's it. End of show. You can see it in the homestretch You can love it or leave it in the homestretch And we might not achieve it in the homestretch

I've never felt so tired that I couldn't cry And I don't even have to say the reason why In the homestretch So far to go Thank you. Every time I really seem so hard before But it's only gonna take a little more In the homesteads, my baby In the homesteads, yeah, yeah In the homesteads, look out your window In the homesteads 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. Our assistant producer is Sydney Rapp. Bill Lance is our editor, and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thank you.