The First Annual Either For President Variety Hour

Featuring a pay-per-view fight between me and Brett versus Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Virginia Foxx

Apr 19, 2021

If you’re asking me if this newsletter is just a way for me to mooch off my friends’ expertise and promote it to all of you like I know what I’m talking about when really I’m learning right alongside everyone else… you should already know the answer to that question.

I talked this week with long-time reader first-time guest Brett Kleiman who knows more than me about a lot of things but not about how to ask fantastic questions while drinking wine and watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I’m a big fan of Brett’s (really well informed) hot takes on Twitter and in his newsletter Either Or, and of his (really well informed) texts when he tells me my newsletter is good.

This week, instead of doing a deep(ish) dive into one thing, I asked for Brett’s hot takes on a variety of things. We’re going to look at everything from Biden’s new infrastructure plan, antisemitism in American politics, and whether or not Jared Kushner is a Jewish heartthrob (spoiler alert: he might be).

We Open On a Dilapidated Department of Transportation Building…

Brett said he loved talking about housing and transportation which is great because I know very little about either. Not knowing more about transportation other than the fact there is always another reason to be mad at the MTA, I asked Brett a question I was dying to know the answer to:

Emily: What does Pete Buttigieg's job entail? And does it matter that the person that did it before him was Elaine Chao?
Brett: I swear to god, the dude just rides bikes to and from doing Fox News interviews where he simply explains that the American Jobs Plan is good.

Speaking about the American Jobs Plan, I entirely ignored what Brett actually wanted to talk about and instead asked him questions about infrastructure, a topic I know even less about than transportation.

Emily: What is infrastructure, first of all, and what does Biden's new infrastructure bill propose?
Brett: Infrastructure is one of those things in Washington —like being an “outsider,” being for small businesses, and so forth— that everyone knows they should support, but has no clue what it is and has not really thought about what that support actually looks like.

You heard it here first, folks: infrastructure is just a fragment of our imaginations!!!1

Brett: I think the framing of Biden’s infastructure bill is quite instructive. The Biden team is calling it the American Jobs Plan, not the American Infrastructure Plan and that is partially a framing thing but also really because this bill is designed to dramatically alter and reshape our economy.
Obviously a huge part of that is roads, ports, trains, bridges and stuff. Those things are really important to our economy!2 But the plan also aims to robustly invest in home-based care, replace all lead pipes so that every American can have access to clean drinking water, bring bus service to underserved communities (meaning that many Americans will now be able to reach more economic opportunities), ensure every American has access to broadband (35% of rural America lacks high speed internet which I guess you could have some lame philosophical conversation on if that is or is not infrastructure, but I guarantee you millions of Americans having access to the internet is good for many reasons), build 500,000 electric chargers, invest in significant research and development, and incentivize better zoning laws in order to push back against skyrocketing housing prices.
From what I’ve seen, this bill is premised on three things:
1. The economy was not working for many Americans long before COVID-19 but the pandemic exacerbated all these issues
2. China is clearly our biggest economic competitor going forward —especially as it relates to tech and green stuff— so we need to be able to not only stay competitive with them but outpace them
3. Everything is about climate change and we need to use the American Jobs Plan as an electric vehicle (wink) to enable America to be the world leader on green energy that we know we can be.
Lastly, and I’d be remiss if I did not say this, the reason this bill will cost somewhere between $2-2.25 TRILLION DOLLARS is because the filibuster is still in place, meaning that we gotta do this dance through budget reconciliation. In a more optimally functioning democracy, where things would be decided on a simple majority vote, these things would each be debated on its own merits and pass or fail based on that.

You see, this is why you all should subscribe to Either Or. Do you think I can ever give you all this amount of information in a straightforward manner? You’d be foolish to believe that I wouldn’t get lost on some tangent about Secretary Mayor Pete using a rideshare bike to get to work and then forget to leave space for serious investigative journalism but for some reason leave space for my theory that he wears a whole Tour de France bodysuit underneath his suit just for fun.

What were we talking about again?

"Obviously antisemitism and israel stuff is always a fun topic"

Once upon a time, I mentioned to Brett that I would like to chat with him about antisemitism in American politics. When discussing what to discuss this week, Brett then said "Obviously antisemitism and israel stuff is always a fun topic" which is a very challenging text to respond to.

Do you heart the message, implying that you believe antisemitism is fun? Do you reply “hahahah” in response to the comedic tone, insinuating that you think these weighty topics are lighthearted and funny?? Do you ignore the text like you ignore these issues in your everyday life???

Moral quandary aside, I asked Brett,

Emily: What is Benjamin Netanyahu's whole vibe about? He’s got a fun nickname and the smirk in this photo makes me laugh, but I also know nothing about Israeli politics so I don't know what to make of him.

The smirk picture, for reference. Source: Britannica.

Brett: Yeah let's start at the nickname thing. It's very common for Israeli politicians to be given nicknames like this. It's very odd but also if you call him Bibi, it shows how ~in the know~ you are.
Bibi’s whole deal is very complicated. His early life is marked by a) being very American and b) dwelling in the shadow of his brother, Yoni. His father, Benzion Netanyahu, who was a disciple of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and the right wing revisioinst Zionist movement, felt that he couldnt advance his career as a historian in Israel so uprooted his family to America, and Bibi graduated high school in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Though he was in an elite special forces unit in Israel —which is a marker of eliteness and status that is almost a prerequisite for being a successful Israeli politician— his older brother Yoni was a legendary and honorable soldier who was the sole casualty in a daring Israeli mission that rescued mostly Israeli hostages from Uganda in the 70s.3 So Bibi’s older brother being adored and memorialized is definitely part of the Bibi psyche.
Long story short, I find Bibi to be one of the most destructive leaders to Zionism/Israel in history. For starters, when he first rose to prominence in the 90s, he emboldened and winked at the far far far right in Israeli politics. He spoke at a rally condemning the Oslo Accords in which he accused Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin —who was seeking to concretize a landmark peace agreement with the Palestinians— of being non-Zionist (which is equivalent to telling a bunch of looney MAGA-heads that the Democrats hate America)4 and which featured posters comparing the Prime Minister of Israel to a member of the Nazi SS.
Did Bibi ever condemn this violence? Did Bibi ever warn his followers that comparisons to the Nazis were too far? Did he ever tamp down his rhetoric? No, no, and no. Only a month after this infamous rally, a right wing terrorist shot and killed Prime Minister Rabin, effectively ending the momentum towards lasting peace.
I realize I am going on a bit long so I’ll be quick: Bibi’s been the prime minister of Israel since 2009, has at best dragged his feet on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has emboldened right wing extremists in Israel, has been the focal point of Israel’s growing illiberalism, is using the Prime Ministership for his own gain, and importantly for us, has allowed and I would argue welcomed the issue of Israel to become a partisan issue within American politics.

The things a smirk can hide! Having gone into this question with the only knowledge of Bibi being that he once stayed over in Jared Kushner’s childhood bedroom, my main takeaway from Brett’s response was that we in America fall prey to quiet ideologies of American exceptionalism unless we actively work to constantly negate them.

We often talk about Trump as if he was the worst dog-whistling far-right sycophantic non-dictator but almost dictator to ever be, ignoring the presence and dominance of leaders far worse than him that also dance around the definition of authoritarianism daily and have caused damage in their countries for far longer.

But going back to the topic of Jared Kushner, I couldn’t help but wonder:

Emily: Is Jared Kushner a Jewish heartthrob?
Brett: Hey if he’s a heartthrob, it gives skinny normal looking Jewish kids who went to Modern Orthodox Day Schools a chance.

Jared Kushner spews stereotype to Black Americans: You have to want success | COMMENTARY - Baltimore Sun

While I’m flattered Brett feels comfortable using my newsletter to answer questions like it’s a JDate profile, I did have one more pretty hefty question for him (and no, this is not another ironic setup, ye of little faith):

Emily: What is the most troubling appearance of antisemitism currently in American politics and is there a way to fix it?
Brett: This is a good question, and unfortunately I don't think I will satisfy your readers.
To me, yes: antisemitism that emanates from the right —whether its the antisemitic shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway which were encouraged by right wing conspiracy theories, the space lasers thing, a love of “Anglo-Saxon traditions,” endorsing the white supremacist replacement theory, elongating the nose of your Jewish poltical rival, calling Neo-Nazis “very fine people,” thinking Israel is American Jews’ country, invoking the classical Jews are only it for the money and want to control their politicians trope— is bad. But it's also blatantly obvious to most people with a brain that that stuff is all really bad and inherently outside of the realm of being okay.
Left-wing antisemitism, which is obviously much less deadly, is the more troubling appearance for me.
For one, it's quite insidious. It's cloaked in layers of dense language and usually in the name of “social justice,” but also more broadly, usually uttered by people who dedicate so much of their time to ostensibly making the world a better and more equal place.
I think with regards to rightwing antisemitism, it will be pushed back as part of a broader push against white supremacy and domestic terrorists. To the extent you can fix it, the quickest way to do these would be to pass some laws that lessen the impact of domestic terror and hate crimes (like the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, the NO HATE Act, and the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act), as well as hoping that people stop listening to those who propagate white supremacist theories.
I think that is part of why I find the leftwing version of antisemitism to be more troubling. There are no easy fixes and the very people who are engaging in these sorts of things DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT THEY MIGHT BE DOING OR SAYING IS ANTISEMTIC.
The best thing I could hope for on this front is that Lefties give Jews the same respect they give other minority groups (some lefties probably wouldn't even identify us as minorities, which is part of the problem. I kind of get it because most Jewish people —though not all!— are white or white passing and usually well off so are afforded the privileges of your typical “white” person) and listen to us when we say something is antisemitic. Even at Emory, I had to prove to people who I’d consider my friends that a certain thing was deeply offensive and hurtful.

I don’t have a clever or funny follow-up to this. All I can say is that it’s my understanding that the most productive way to beat back hatred is through acts of solidarity. Not war or competition or pre-emptive actions. Just showing up for one another, shutting up for one another, and getting better for one another.

“America?? Alright!”5

Before we add some levity back into the chat, I want to add one of the harder conversations Brett and I had about the state of American politics.

Emily: Picture this: we're on a team. We're allowed to challenge two current lawmakers to a hand-to-hand combat duel. Who do you think we could absolutely destroy?
Brett: Oh fuck yeah. Luckily for us there are a bunch of geriatrics toiling around the US Capitol so we can definitely do this. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). Let's do this.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can get into the real nitty-gritty conversations:

Emily: With no context, what's the smartest political opinion you can give?
Brett: LeBron James and Matthew McConaughey should both just say “fuck it” and run for office in Ohio and Texas, respectively.

And of course, I had to throw in a funny question. What would this newsletter be without my mildly decent comedic schtick?

Emily: What do you think is the most important issue for the Biden/Harris Administration to address and do you think they're going to address it well?
Brett: I want to give two answers.
I think for starters, we’d be remiss if we didn't mention how collassaly they have fucked up and bungled this refugee thing. Joe Biden claims that he first decided to run for president after white supremacists marched on Charlottesville shouting “Jews will not replace us” and throughout the 2020 election, he vowed to restore the soul of our nation. Yet, his administration has seemingly caved to nativist fears and essentially shut the door on the world’s tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
But, and I hope I haven't telegraphed my answer, the most important issue they’ll face is how they plan on handling the filibuster.
Any issue you care about —democracy reform, voting rights, climate change, labor rights, housing, and so on— depends on what the Senate can and cannot pass. Essentially, the issues that will rightly impact the future of our democracy are downstream from how those in the White House will handle the filibuster.
So far, I’d say they haven't done anything really, other than vaguely say that Biden is for a talking filibuster, which is about as little filibuster reform as you can do. I get this approach to a point —I also acknowledge I’m just some guy and these people are in the White House, so they know a thing or two more than me— they’d rather focus on passing COVID-19 relief and passing this big ass economic bill. And maybe they are right.
But pretty soon everyone will be focused on the midterms and scared to make bold moves on a filibuster reform and passing HR1, The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and making D.C. and Puerto Rico states.

I’m getting a “Will They/Won’t They?” vibe from Brett on this one, which is fair because the administration has been exclusively and aggressively sending a “Will They/Won’t They?” vibe on the filibuster so far.

With more people learning about what in the hell a filibuster is (you’re welcome) and realizing it’s a serious problem we need to fix, I have the thinnest shred of hope in getting rid of that bitch once and for all!!!

In Summary and In Summation

I didn’t want to open with this week’s most important question as I am wont to do because I didn’t want to shatter Brett’s credibility with a boldfaced lie so instead, we are ending today’s newsletter with it:

Emily: Am I funny on Twitter?
Brett: Funnier than I ever could be, for what that's worth.

While I don’t want to soil this newsletter’s reputation by publishing something as baseless and untrue as this, it is really great free advertisement. Follow me on Twitter!!!

Thank you to Brett for answering all of my insane questions and a few of my serious ones, too. Make sure to check out Either Or for really great hot takes that will instantly make you feel smarter after reading.