Raging Moderates: The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy

Summary

Raging Moderates: The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway presents a compelling episode titled "Raging Moderates: The Shadow of January 6th, Johnson’s Speakership, and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy," released on January 7, 2025. Hosted by Scott Galloway and co-hosted by Jessica Tarleff, the episode delves deep into the lingering effects of the January 6th Capitol attack, the intricacies of Mike Johnson's election as Speaker of the House, and the enduring legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.

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1. The Lingering Shadow of January 6th

The episode opens with a reflection on the fourth anniversary of the January 6th Capitol attack. Scott Galloway emphasizes the event's enduring impact on American democracy:

"It's been four years since the January 6 Capitol attack, and the shadow it cast on American democracy still looms pretty large." [04:12]

Key Points:

• Over 1,500 individuals have been charged in relation to the attack, with sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.
• Vice President Kamala Harris's certification of President-elect Donald Trump's win is highlighted as a "bitterly ironic twist" [04:30].
• Jessica Tarleff observes the divided public perception:

"The real take home message is no one gives a fuck, right?" [06:16]

This sentiment underscores a growing apathy or disinterest among the electorate regarding the events of January 6th, especially amidst pressing everyday concerns like grocery bills and economic stability.

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2. Mike Johnson’s Election as Speaker of the House

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the recent election of Mike Johnson as Speaker, a process heavily influenced by Donald Trump's intervention.

"Trump's endorsement was pivotal, with Johnson calling it a big factor and Rep. Andy Biggs admitting the outcome would have been different without it." [13:38]

Key Points:

• Trump actively rallied GOP holdouts Ralph Norman and Keith Self, securing Johnson's narrow victory.
• The episode underscores Trump's dominant influence within the Republican Party, posing challenges for uniting Republicans in a highly divided Congress [13:50].
• Jessica underscores the slim majority:

"If we just get on board. And that's what I think happened on Friday." [14:59]

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3. Republican Party Dynamics and Internal Challenges

Galloway and Tarleff delve into the internal dynamics of the Republican Party, highlighting the roles of Senators Sinema and Manchin as "raging narcissists" seeking attention and maintaining their swing votes.

"I'd just be shocked if you're not going to see some of that Manchin and Sinema holdout from a lot of Republican congresspeople..." [14:59]

Key Points:

• The influence of individual congress members who prioritize personal popularity over party unity.
• The potential for a split Congress, making it difficult to clearly define as a unified Republican body [16:13].

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4. The National Deficit and Economic Implications

A substantial discussion is devoted to the national deficit, its historical context, and its future implications on the economy.

"The bond market is already responding. And guess what? Your credit card bills, your mortgage payments and your student loan payments are about to be higher because the adults are about to leave the building and the bond market is already really scared." [23:58]

Key Points:

• Historical deficits under presidents from George Washington to Biden, highlighting the unsustainable nature of accumulating debt.
• The role of the bond market as an "unelected leader," influencing fiscal policies and economic stability [19:07].
• Potential consequences of rising deficits, including increased interest rates and inflation spikes, which could lead to higher costs for Americans [20:30].

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5. The Passing of Jimmy Carter and His Legacy

The episode shifts focus to the passing of Jimmy Carter, celebrating his legacy while juxtaposing his presidency with his post-presidential humanitarian efforts.

"Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president and a trailblazer in humanitarian efforts, passed away at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia." [34:43]

Key Points:

• Carter's single-term presidency faced significant economic and foreign policy challenges, including the Iranian hostage crisis and high inflation.
• His post-presidency work with the Carter Center, advocating for human rights and global peace, earned him a Nobel Prize and reshaped perceptions of former presidents [35:46].
• Jessica reflects on Carter's enduring legacy and contrasts it with other presidents:

"As people try to develop a more aspirational form of masculinity, I'm constantly asked... I think about Jimmy Carter... a nice vision for young men." [38:53]

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6. Democrats’ Struggle with Economic Messaging

A critical examination is conducted on the Democratic Party's failure to effectively communicate and address economic issues, as highlighted by James Carville's op-ed.

"James Carville admitted Democrats lost in 2024 because they failed to connect with voters on the economy." [46:46]

Key Points:

• Despite solid GDP growth and low inflation, many Americans feel the benefits aren't reaching them, leading to shifting voter sentiments.
• The importance of clear, relatable, and urgent economic narratives, akin to the "economy, stupid" mantra from the 1992 Clinton campaign [49:14].
• Jessica criticizes the Democratic focus on identity politics over tangible economic issues, arguing it alienates voters who prioritize personal economic struggles over group identities [52:16].

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7. Recommendations for Democratic Strategy

Scott and Jessica advocate for the Democratic Party to pivot towards straightforward economic messaging, moving away from identity-centric politics to resonate with a broader electorate.

"I think that's a great messaging standpoint. So last time we had a surplus... you know, it's really about how they communicate the issues." [20:52]

Key Points:

• Emphasizing real-life economic hardships, such as high mortgage rates and credit card debt, to make fiscal policies relatable.
• Reducing the focus on race and identity to concentrate on universal economic concerns that impact everyday Americans [50:07].

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8. Closing Reflections and Team Departures

The episode concludes with light-hearted banter about departing producer Caroline Chagrin, highlighting internal team dynamics and the show's ongoing momentum.

"Caroline, you're leaving the park, but I am stamping your wrist in case you decide to return." [63:12]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Scott Galloway on January 6th's Impact:

  "It's been four years since the January 6 Capitol attack, and the shadow it cast on American democracy still looms pretty large." [04:12]

• Jessica Tarleff on Public Apathy:

  "The real take home message is no one gives a fuck, right?" [06:16]

• Scott Galloway on Mike Johnson's Election:

  "Trump's endorsement was pivotal..." [13:38]

• Jessica Tarleff on Republican Bias:

  "We are paying, when you pay the highest taxes in the nation and people are being lit on fire on public transport." [54:35]

• Scott Galloway on Deficit Messaging:

  "I love the idea of the most powerful unelected person right now is the bond market." [20:30]

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Conclusions and Takeaways

"Raging Moderates" offers a nuanced exploration of current American political dynamics, highlighting the persistent challenges stemming from the January 6th events, internal struggles within the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party's messaging shortcomings. The tribute to Jimmy Carter serves as a reflective pause, contrasting past presidential legacies with present political climates. The episode underscores the necessity for political parties to adapt their strategies to address the real economic concerns of voters, moving beyond identity politics to foster meaningful connections with the electorate.

For listeners seeking a deep dive into the intersection of politics, economics, and legacy, this episode provides invaluable insights and thoughtful analysis from Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarleff.

Transcript

[Jessica Tarleff]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Scott Galloway]

Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.

[Jessica Tarleff]

And I'm Jessica Tarleff.

[Scott Galloway]

Jess, we are together.

[Jessica Tarleff]

We are together.

[Scott Galloway]

We are in the same house.

[Jessica Tarleff]

You came home to America.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I came back. And you dragged my ass downtown to.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Broad street where you're being so pleasant about it.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm so angry that first off, they didn't know who we were downstairs. And this is a ghost town. I don't. It makes me want to try and figure out a way to short commercial real estate. I can't believe you do this. You like coming in, right?

[Jessica Tarleff]

Went on that. Yeah. I was just like, oh, young people should want to be in an office. Cause it's nice to meet people. You're just like, you want to short.

[Scott Galloway]

You're looking to escape your kids is what I'm doing.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Oh, I ran. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I ran right out of there.

[Scott Galloway]

So the holidays catch us up. What'd you do over the holidays?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I was around for most of it. I worked on a ghost town week, which I always like. Cause everyone who's there is like in a good mood. They're getting overtime, which everyone likes. Not on air talent, but the amazing hair and makeup people and the tech people. So I did that. We were in New Jersey for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Apparently it's two separate holidays. And we went to Long island for a few days and then we had a staycation.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah, that's right.

[Jessica Tarleff]

You said which was the best? I still like my husband. Who knew? I like my Apartment It'll go.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, he's a dude. We'll fix that.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Okay. And tell us about safari.

[Scott Galloway]

I was fine. I was in South Africa. My sister is at a. Our kids are at a wonderful age. They're both 14 and 17 and so her kids. And so it's fun to get them to hang out. South Africa's amazing safari is really wonderful. Yeah. I mean super, super nice. I think I'm really into this idea of lifestyle arbitrages. If I was 20 years younger, there's a lot I would do If I were 20 years younger. But I think if you could make a like US salary and did remote work, I think Cape Town would be a pretty interesting place to hang out. It's so inexpensive. I'm obsessed with prices and money and that came out wrong.

[Jessica Tarleff]

But I find actually came out right.

[Scott Galloway]

Came out right.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I mean it came out accurate. I don't know if you like that.

[Scott Galloway]

About yourself, but I, I'm fascinated with the cost of things.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And South Africa right now is like it's sort of the old navy of global cities in the sense that it's 80% of a world class city for 40% of the price. Anyways, that was my big observation around my. My great holiday with my family. And what is in store like if for just Harlov. Do you do New Year's resolutions? Do you have goals for 20, 25?

[Jessica Tarleff]

Not set out like that. Actually no. Probably should have. I just, I want to, you know, I'm like so in it with young kids like three and nine months. So I want them to have great years. Yeah. In the soup. I want to do. Make sure that I do a couple big trips. Do you could professionally survive inauguration? Like all the things.

[Scott Galloway]

All the stuff.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah. What about you?

[Scott Galloway]

I see all of that happening. I just want more of the same. I'm really. I'm rounding third right now. I'm enjoying my kids professionally having a ton of fun. Yeah. I'm just. If it were up to me, I want everything to stay the same. I really don't have any resolutions. I want to be less angry, less depressed, less unappreciative, less. Less hard on myself, less hard on others. Other than that, everything's good. Everything's good. All right. Let's get into it today. Speaking of being angry at others, Today is the fourth anniversary of January 6th. We're recording this on you guys said the 6. Mike Johnson's encore, Speaker Jimmy Carter's enduring legacy and the Democrats strategy moving forward. Let's bust right into it. It's been four years since the January 6 Capitol attack, and the shadow it cast on American democracy still looms pretty, pretty large. Over 1500 people have been charged with sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years. And now on this anniversary, Vice President Kamala Harris has certified President elect Donald Trump's win. A bitterly ironic twist on a day already steeped in history. Harris has called January 6, 2021, a moment of lawlessness, violence and chaos that tested the nation's democratic foundations. One side of the nation, or 47% of the electorate or whatever it is, is going to try and just not talk about it. I can't imagine it's gonna come up a lot on conservative radio today. And Democrats are gonna try and pound the shit out of it and remind everybody what happened four years ago. Do you have any sort of, what are your observations kind of four years.

[Jessica Tarleff]

In, how little it matters. Not even just amongst conservatives who. And I would say as an addendum to your point about conservative media and what they'll do, they will talk about it, but they will talk about this transformed narrative that it was a day of love and where would the pardons. And you know, because Trump has said that that's gonna be a day one activity for him and really, you know, rewriting the script of what January 6th looked like. President Biden had an op ed out about January 6th today in the Washington Post. You know, one of those, let's never forget, right, what actually happened on that day and for the people who still remember, and a majority of Americans do think that it was an attack on our democracy. A majority of Americans think that Donald Trump is personally culpable for what happened. But the real take home message is no one gives a fuck, right?

[Scott Galloway]

Not enough. Not enough people.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Not enough people for sure. The Liz Cheney's of the world and the Bulwark guys and those people, they're out there. But when you look at the hierarchy of issues concerning a person in their day to day life, it ranks pretty low on it. And I think part of that might be that we live in this rarefied world where we can afford to sit there and pontificate about threats to democracy, when the real threat to democracy is that your grocery bill is too high. Right? Like that matters a hell of a lot more to you. But then I think there's also just been this dearth of good messaging almost, or keeping it in the national consciousness in a way that doesn't feel like you're bludgeoning people over the head with it all the time, but that it's always in the rear view mirror that there's one party that respects democracy and there's one party that doesn't. And your grocery bill, your gas prices, whether you can afford to have a new home, all of that actually doesn't matter if you have people in power who think your vote doesn't count. And to me, that's what January 6th was. It was an attack on law enforcement. Of course we're going to talk about that. But it was a bunch of people saying, it's not one person, one vote here. You know, it's my way or the highway, and I'm going to invalidate, you know, the will of millions of you.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I think. I think we lost a lot of moral standing or currency around the world with what I thought was sort of an errand or a mistaken invasion of Iraq. I think that was probably the geopolitically, maybe the worst, if not the second worst decision by US Government that cost US currency around the world and also turn Iran into a superpower. I mean, it just couldn't have been more stupid. But I wonder in terms of our currency around the world and our moral authority, seeing the capital attacked and then having the guy who put up a golf tent to watch the attack be reelected, I just feel like we've lost. All right. To kind of preach to anybody about democracy. I remember thinking, I loved it when Prigozhin turned his army eastward and started marching towards Moscow. And I thought, oh, my God, so embarrassing for Russia. And I had to remind myself, actually, this Duck Dynasty mob getting out of their RAV fours and their Oakley glasses and their, you know, I'm being very disparaging in identity politics here. They actually raided the Capitol.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And the guy who kind of was egging them on and it was sort of their spiritual leader around this was reelected president. It just. Of all the things you could add up, you know, and there's a lot here, the kleptocracy, the conviction around, you know, sexual abuse, the. The nuclear secrets or the secrets being hidden in a golf cart storage facility. I think this kind of bests them all. And this is not an easy contest. And that is if you don't believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I just like so many things, I thought, okay, this is disqualifying, this can. Brazil has a much stronger democracy than us. Their guy tried it and immediately got kind of flung out.

[Jessica Tarleff]

And.

[Scott Galloway]

And they restored their democracy pretty quickly. And we didn't do that. We reelected the guy who sponsored it. Support for ProPG comes from Grammarly these days it seems like you can't throw a rock without hitting some new AI integration. Don't get me wrong, there are some incredibly innovative tools out there, but if they're too complicated to use or not adaptable to your needs, then they're not likely to fit into your business's workflow. Grammarly, on the other hand, is your intelligent writing partner that seamlessly integrates with half a million apps and websites. And when every word your team writes is clear, concise and on brand, everything gets better and faster. Grammarly reports to teams who used our technology spend 52% less time writing sales emails for more than 15 years, Grammarly has been in the business of offering secure, private, responsible, enterprise grade AI. That means that Grammarly prioritizes keeping your organization's data safe. We've used Grammarly at propg and simply put, it's helped us be more efficient and more consistent with our written material. Join 70,000 teams and 30 million people who trust Grammarly to work faster and hit their goals while keeping their data Secure. Go to Grammarly.comenterprise to learn more Grammarly Enterprise Ready AI support for the show comes from NetSuite. Despite our best efforts, it's impossible to know what the future will bring. There's no crystal ball to tell you when the market will turn from a bull market to a bear market, when rates will rise or fall. The best any of us can do is be prepared for any outcome and for that you might want to try NetSuite by Oracle. Almost 40,000 companies choose NetSuite to help future proof their business so they can stay on track no matter what tomorrow brings. NetSuite is a top rated cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one fluid platform with one single source of truth. NetSuite offers real time insights and data you can use to make the right decision at the right time. All to help you close the books in days, not weeks so you can spend less time looking backwards and more time on what's next for your business. And whether your company is earning millions or even Hundreds of millions, NetSuite can help you respond to immediate challenges and seize opportunities. Speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com Prof. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com Profident netsuite.com Profile Prof. Support for the show comes from LinkedIn. If you're looking to grow your business this year, then you're going to want the best people to Help make it happen. LinkedIn has some of the strongest hiring data and insights to help you identify the right candidates so you can make the best hiring decisions. If you're looking to hire this year, hire smarter with LinkedIn. LinkedIn knows that hiring is a big deal for small business. They understand you're juggling a million things at once and hiring the right person is crucial to your success. That's why LinkedIn says they can pair you with the best candidates using data you won't find anywhere else. You can create a job in just minutes to find candidates with unique skills and interests and see the connections you have in common. And according to LinkedIn data, 72% of small to medium sized businesses who use LinkedIn say it helps them find high quality candidates and 86% find a qualified candidate within the first 24 hours of posting a job. You can find your next great hire on LinkedIn. You can post your job for free at LinkedIn.com Scott that's LinkedIn.com Scott to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. All right, moving on. Last week, with two votes separating Mike Johnson from the Speaker's gavel, President Elect Trump stepped in, calling GOP holdouts Ralph Norman and Keith Self to rally support. Their shift secured Johnson's narrow victory, highlighting Trump's grip on the party and the challenge of uniting Republicans in a divided Congress. Trump's endorsement was pivotal, with Johnson calling it a big factor and Rep. Andy Biggs admitting the outcome would have been different without it. Trump's hands on approach, a contrast to past leadership battles, showcase his influence and the stakes of keeping the GOP aligned to deliver his agenda. Jess, how does this market shift in Trump's approach to party leadership? Or does it?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I'm not sure it's a difference in his approach to party leadership. It might be a difference in how his approach to party leadership is going to be received for the next few years. And I think that there are two factors in this that really mattered. One, the impact of having the President of the United States or President elect get on the phone and tell you like, this is what's best for us. You've got to do this if you, if you want to have any progress. And then the second piece is that this speaker battle, you know, was happening a few days before the election, needs to be certified. And there's no reason to think, I mean, House Speaker Mike Johnson didn't play a role in the certification. But having the House in chaos going into January 6, 2025, I think was something that was present in people's minds where they thought we we need to get through Monday. And it was only a couple of people and there were, you know, from the Freedom Caucus, people like Chip Roy, et cetera. They have a whole list of demands that they were able to put out there. But I think that the Republicans have resigned themselves to for the ones who are not huge Trump f this is Trump's party at this moment, and that we're going to be able to be more effective with the slimmest majority since 1917 once these vacancies take place, if we just get on board. And that's what I think happened on Friday.

[Scott Galloway]

It strikes me that if you a position yourself. When I think of Senators Sinema and Manchin, they like to position themselves as moderates, but I just think they were raging narcissists and loved the position of being swing votes and having the cameras and the president or whoever calling them and begging for them to see their way clear. And then they could fall back and say, oh, no, we're just moderates and we have real concerns around these issues. It strikes me you're going to see, given the way elections work right now and how important it is just to get attention, regardless if it's good or bad attention. I'd just be shocked if you're not going to see some of that Mansion cinema holdout from a lot of Republican congresspeople who are going to be like, look, I'm really popular in my district and I like the attention. I like the idea of having all this power by basically wringing my hands and saying, well, I'm not sure I have some concerns. That's their favorite word. Yeah, I wonder if they're going to feel some of that frustration we used to feel where we couldn't and, you know, vote with your heart and conscience. It's important that people, you know, occasionally. I like it when people break from a party line, but my sense is Mansion and cinema got addicted to the attention of it. It's almost. It really is kind of a split Congress at this point. It's not. It's hard to even say it's a Republican Congress. Right.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Thank you for coming around to my thinking about this. It was not a landslide. No, no, it's not my idea.

[Scott Galloway]

I said the presidency was a landslide, not Congress.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Always the narrative on their side is we have this massive mandate. If you had a massive mandate, you'd have a lot of people to be able to vote for your side. And right now you don't have that. Now we lost they have a trifecta that is a better position to be in in all of this. But when you look at the margins and you think about someone like a Thomas Massie who didn't vote for Speaker Johnson, he said he, you know, that they could pull his fingernails out and he still wouldn't vote for Speaker Johnson. Look like at a Chip Roy, for instance, I mean, these people are going to be serious about the things that matter to them. And a lot of that is the deficit. And they're like, we're not here to rubber stamp spending the same way as if President Biden was in office and Chuck Schumer was a majority leader. And that is going to be a big problem, I think, especially as we go through reconciliation now. Mike Johnson wants one bill. Trump said this morning, you know, if it's one or two bills, I don't really care because Senator Thune told him getting it through in one bill is probably not going to happen. But I mean, they are trying to do everything at once in four months.

[Scott Galloway]

My understanding is that's near impossible logistically. Is that right?

[Jessica Tarleff]

Well, especially if you look at these margins and then it'll be up to Hakeem Jeffries to decide what he wants to do because he's in complete control of the Democratic caucus. Right. No one, no one goes out on their own. Basically.

[Scott Galloway]

Rebel forces are more likely inclined to follow their leader. Right. When they're, when they're kind of on their, on their heels, if you will. I think the deficit is a super interesting one because deficits seem to be, oh, is it really high up in terms of concerns of the party, not in control. Right. And it is a huge issue. I've always said that, or not always, but I do believe that the largest tax increase in history is that from George Washington, George Bush, 7 trillion in deficits, the Trump administration of the first one, 8 trillion. And Biden wasn't much better. And all that is, is pulling prosperity forward from younger people such that my generation can stay wealthy. Right. At some point someone's gonna have to pay this thing. And now the debt or the interest on the debt is now greater than our military expenditures. What's interesting is in the administration, the unelected leader here, who I would argue is the secretary of adult behavior in the Cabinet, is the bond market. And that is if they come out with something that's going to really continue to increase the deficit, I think you're going to see the 10 year spike. And I think for the first time there's going to be rumors that the Chinese or other investors might not show up for the next treasury auction, which would take interest rates way up. You see that happen or you see inflation spike again, you don't need Congress or you don't need deficit hawks. They're going to go, okay, if all of a sudden inflation's back, we're all getting swept out of office and people are going to find their backbone again. And I love the idea of the most powerful unelected person right now is the bond market.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I like it too. We should put him in a costume. I made it a hip, I gendered him. Maybe it's a woman, the bond market, but I think that that's a great way to look at it. And I actually wanted to ask you about this because it loops into the conversation we were just having about messaging about threats to democracy, et cetera. You know, how can we effectively message the deficit? Because when I talk to, you know, my friends about it, or my mom, my mom's gentleman suitor, he says, well, okay, let's talk about the deficit. You know what the deficit is? It's the mortgage rate that you can't afford to pay right now, right? Like that's how it's manifesting in your life, that it's keeping young people off the property ladder, for instance. And I feel like we have done none of that. You know, talking about the links between those two things, it feels like this amorphous thing that can, that you are constantly kicking down the proverbial road. And I want to hear it in terms of interest rates, mortgage rates, you know, cost of living expenses. I mean, we have this number that Trump's plan will cost us $4.6 trillion.

[Scott Galloway]

Right?

[Jessica Tarleff]

That's what I'll add to the deficit. Put that in real terms for somebody who took a flyer on this chaos agent heading into this election, right? Like the 32 year old that has a $150,000 job, doesn't feel they'll ever be able to buy a house, is struggling to find a mate, like make the deficit real for that person.

[Scott Galloway]

I think that's a great, I think that's a great messaging standpoint. So last time we had a surplus, you know, Democratic administration record low interest rates during the Biden administration. And I mean, if you think about the power of the bond market, essentially the shortest tenure of any elected leader, I think in history of a G7 nation trust in the prime minister and basically the bond market, 10 days as.

[Jessica Tarleff]

A lettuce or something.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, there was a lettuce test which will Last longer. Her prime ministership or this head of lettuce. And the head of lettuce, I think, won, or she won by three days. But basically the bond market showed up. She put out a budget and said, we're going to lower taxes. We're going to go Reagan, Thatcher here, more Reagan. And no plan to increase revenues, and it's going to take our deficit up. And the world market said, you don't have the default currency to keep printing money of people if you can't afford the interest rates here. And the market, the pound crashed the interest rate. I mean, the bond market showed up and said, sorry, girlfriend, and she was out. And I wonder if there's going to be a moment here where if inflation. I think the seminal moment in 2025 for the Trump administration is going to be when inflation spikes. And all of a sudden it says, oh, no, I'm still here. You thought you killed me. I'm Jason, I'm in a hockey mask. And just when you thought it was over, I'm back. Just to scare the shit out of Jamie Lee Curtis's great, great, great granddaughter. That was probably Ageist, by the way, one of the hottest women. It takes me back to the 80s. Wow. I mean, what was that show? Was it perfect? What was the one with John Travolta where she was the aerobics instructor? Anyways, fantastic filmmaking.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I think about. Is it the. The sexy pole dance and True lies.

[Scott Galloway]

She. That was. Yeah, that was. That was a great film. That was probably her cinematic peak. Actually, Trading Places was pretty good. Anyways, back to actual policy here, substance. But strikes me that again, the Democrats aren't doing a good job of saying, FYI, this guy's already threatening an irresponsible fiscal plan, and the bond market is already responding. And guess what? Your credit card bills, your mortgage payments and your student loan payments are about to be higher because the adults are about to leave the building and the bond market is already really scared. And to put it in, like you said, to put it in layman's terms, saying, folks, your price is about to go up. You may think you're not paying more, but you are, because interest rates go up, which is a tax on everyone, because people see that this guy's irresponsible. And this new analogy I love is that at negative 40 Celsius and Fahrenheit converge, you know, usually if you're in Canada and you're in Europe, I'm constantly converting, all right, it's 28 Celsius. Double it, add 30 at negative 40, they're the same. That is not a hospitable or good environment to be in. That means something's fucked up. You don't want to be somewhere where Fahrenheit and Celsius converge. Right.

[Jessica Tarleff]

It's one of those natural or just negative 40.

[Scott Galloway]

Negative 40 is bad. Just general. You just want to stay away from negative 40. And I find that there's an analogy, or an apt analogy around whenever the far right and the far left come together, you're a negative 40. It's a really bad idea. Whether I think the far left or the far right anti vaxxers. The far left and the far right total anti Semites. The far left and the far right seem to come together to agree on. All right, we want more social policies and more spending. All right, we want on the far right, lower taxes and more military spending. I know. Let's get together and do both and explode the deficit.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Well, that's a pretty big deal that we could already potentially predict that two weeks out from inauguration. Right. Usually someone has to get in and for us to see the lay of the land. But because a, we have this strange situation that we've already seen him as president before, so we understand some of his proclivities and that he has essentially become de facto president since he got elected. I mean, you know, Maloney is down there mar a lago. Trudeau's been though, you know, resigning from the leadership of the party, which I think is fascinating turn for Canada. But Trump has essentially gotten an extra couple of months of being president. And the market no likey. Right. I mean, Jerome Powell, who came out and said, a, he can't fire me, which I kind of loved, but then said, prices are not going to get better. Right. Your rates, we're not bringing the rates down. And then you have the mortgage rates, which is certainly. It's a hot topic of conversation amongst my cohort. Right. Like elder millennials that are thinking, okay, you know, this is our time to get on the property ladder. We've paying these nuts rents, and so the mortgage rates don't come down. And then on top of it, are we gonna have a little trade war with Canada? We're not gonna be able to get any lumber to build houses. Right. We're gonna have a deportation force that's gonna kick everyone out of the hospitality industry. There's gonna be no one to build our homes, serve our tables, take care of our dying parents. And you're thinking, like, what was I voting for here? And there's I'm skipping ahead to something we're supposed to talk about later, but there was this big piece in the Wall Street Journal about the millennials living in arrested development in their 30s and 40s with their parents. And it feels like this confluence of every big problem that we've been talking about for the last kind of four to eight years, from student debt to sex and dating and relationships to social media and loneliness to high prices to unrealistic expectations to helicopter parenting, which I feel like has been completely missed over as a key factor in why all of these people in my generation are fucked up and still living with their parents. And it's all coming together at the beginning of the second Trump term in a way that is not only concerning, but offers, I guess, a window into a very scary next 10 to 20 years where people might not be pushing culture or, you know, civilization forward in the way that we always have.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that's dystopic. You know, that would be dystopian. You're learning to. I think I'm infecting you with half glass, half emptiedis. You said something that really struck me.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I want out.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go. And I've been thinking about this a lot, and that is. I'm pissed off. And it falls back, I think, again at the feet of Democratic or poor Democratic leadership. We've decided that Trump's presidency is going to be not four years, but four years and three months. He and First Lady Alania are controlling the news cycle. Musk is having more influence over foreign policy right now than Biden, it feels. And just a call out to all of my colleagues and friends who were constantly sending me emails saying, Biden is going to be our nominee and you need to understand the assignment and get on board. The reason why an unelected man and the world's wealthiest man are now controlling the narrative is because we have a guy who should not be president because of his age, and they are afraid to put him in front of a camera for the first time. He's doing his I forget what sign off speech.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah, the first.

[Scott Galloway]

Without taking any questions from reporters. They are clearly so scared of this guy getting in front of people to actually have to answer questions and express that cognitive ability that they've said. Even with this little to lose, even with. You gotta think even the folks from Fox are gonna be pretty nice to him if they ask questions during this thing. They said, no, we can't take that risk because this guy is in such serious decline. We should move on because we've gotten literally through about 10% of our topics here. So curious what you think about. We were talking. We started this conversation with talking about Speaker Johnson being getting the gavel again. I initially, when I had a litmus test or saw some of Speaker Johnson's background, I thought, oh, this is David Duke light. I use that term.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Oh, yeah, you said that when we were on Bill Maher together.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And that was the wrong thing to say. And I don't know the man. He doesn't care what I think, but I think I got that wrong. I actually think Speaker Johnson has done a really good job.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

And that is the speakership is supposed to be an administrative position, not a political one. I don't agree with his politics. I'm never going to, but I think he's been a good administrator. I think he has done his job. He has tried, he has corralled people, he's gotten the debt ceiling elevated. I think he is doing what that role commands of him. And I find him to be an adult and taking his actual position really seriously. I think he's done as good a job as we could have expected from what is arguably one of the worst. It's got to be just almost an impossible position right now. What are your thoughts on Speaker Johnson?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I largely agree not with the David Duke Lite part. I think there are concerning things about him. And when we had that conversation a bit over a year ago, we didn't know much about soon to be Speaker Johnson, except that he was, you know, part of an architect to overturn the election results. And there was good reason to think that he was more of a firebrand than an administrator. And it turns out that he's happy to kind of be like a little elf right, in the workshop. And he's just running around from office to office saying, what do you need? What do I need to do to get your vote? And he doesn't have rhetorical flourishes. He. I mean, he's fine on tv. He's on all the time, which I appreciate. I think it's good to hear from these people. He doesn't seem that afraid to talk to people he disagrees with, which I think is a massive plus point. But he doesn't, you know, he's not going to bring down the House like a Nancy Pelosi speech or Hakeem Jeffries or even Kevin McCarthy, I think had, you know, bigger moments where of gravitas. But he's getting the job done and he's working. Like I said, it's going to be the slimmest majority since 1917. What do you want from the man? He shows up every day, he looks perfect. He knows who he has to talk to. He has created a good, seemingly working relationship with President Elect Trump and Alania, and he knows how to kind of take what he gets from them and bring that back to an unruly caucus. He's also going to benefit from the fact that Matt Gaetz is not around from all this. He, I think, has a pretty decent relationship with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is now, you know, nutcase number one, I feel like in the House, and Lauren BOEBERT, I guess 1A for her. But generally speaking, yeah, I think he's probably the right man for this moment. But I don't know how this bill comes into existence. And I thought that we were trending the first speaker fight from a couple weeks ago. I thought we were moving towards a world where maybe we weren't going to have single issue bills, but we were going to have smaller bills. Right. Like at least by policy area. So you say here's the immigration bill. Right. Here's the energy bill, here's what we're going to do on climate, taxation, et cetera.

[Scott Galloway]

Or not.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Right. And this just feels like it's gonna be more of the same and it's going to obviously affect those less well off the most, which is what happens. Right. The cuts are going to come from people who rely on entitlement programs, the people who, you know, operate at the lowest economic levels of our society and the people who frankly needed whatever Trump was selling the most in all of this. Right. The people who the the great Biden economy was not working so well for. The people whose credit card debt is so through the roof. I mean, the numbers on that are staggering from a historical perspective. And they're going to get totally shafted, which this crazy reconciliation bill, it's going to cost us trillions and change nothing about the way Washington does business.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for Prop G comes from masterclass. It's 2025, the year you decided to get serious about building your own business. But you realize you have no idea where to start. Or maybe you're just looking to up your public speaking game or want to dedicate yourself to becoming a better team leader. No matter what your educational goals are for the year, why not learn from the best? Masterclass is the streaming platform where you can learn from more than 200 of the world's best minds. For just $10 a month, an annual membership with Masterclass gets you unlimited access to every instructor. Plus, you can access Masterclass on your phone, computer, TV, or even audio mode. And according to Masterclass, 88% of members report that it's made a positive impact on their lives. Personally, I'd recommend the Masterclass with Bob Iger. I'm fascinated by leadership and also the one with Martha Stewart I found quite interesting. Anyways, right now our listeners can get an additional 15% off any annual [e-mail] Prof. G that's 15% [e-mail] Prof. G masterclass.com Prof. Gary support for Proptee comes from Vanta if you're a startup founder, finding product market fit is probably your number one priority. But to land bigger customers, you also need security compliance. And obtaining your SOC2 ISO 27001 certification can take up valuable time and energy, pulling you away from building and shipping. That's where Vanta comes in. Vanta is the all in one compliance solution, helping startups like yours get audit ready and build a strong security foundation quickly and painlessly. Vanta automates the manual security tasks that slow you down, helping you streamline your audit, and the platform connects you with trusted VCSOs to build your program, auditors to get you through audits quickly, and a marketplace for essentials like pen testing. So whether you're closing your first deal or gearing up for growth, Vanta makes compliance easy. You can join over 8,000 companies, including many Y Combinator and Techstar startup who trust Vanta. If you want to simplify compliance and get $1,000 off, you can visit vanta.comprofg that's V A N T A.com profg.

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[Scott Galloway]

Welcome back. Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president and a trailblazer in humanitarian efforts, passed away at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Surrounded by family, a peanut farmer turned president, Carter's single term from 1977-81 faced economic and foreign policy challenges, but his post presidency legacy as a Nobel Prize Winning advocate for human rights and global peace reshaped how we view former presidents. President Biden called Carter a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose. It's nice, isn't it? Let's read that again. A model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose and declare January 9th a national holiday of mourning. President elect Donald Trump, who has often been critical of Carter, acknowledged the former president's contribution, saying we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Carter's state funeral will be held on January 9th in Washington D.C. followed by a private internment in Plains. Jess, what are any thoughts on Carter's legacy and how he'll be remembered in light of the contrast between his presidency and his post presidential work?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I'm concerned that it's just always gonna kind of be shitty for Carter because his presidency is so present in people's minds, especially having gone through this high inflationary period, that people just think of the Iranian hostage crisis and they think of the prices and they just say Jimmy Carter was all bad. And something that I've been reading up more on since he passed away or towards the end of his life since these obits have been hanging in the air. And there was this great. Well, not great because the obituary writer up passing away, but Jimmy Carter outlived one of his obit writers by like over a decade. But looking at his foreign policy record, hostage crisis aside, it's incredible to look at all the groundwork that was laid during those years when it comes to China, when it comes to our anti Soviet positions, you know, Reagan obviously getting credit for ending Cold War, but like, you know, Carter being the first one to actually be speaking out about the Soviets and to talk about democracy and human rights in those contexts, the Camp David accords, you know, peace treaties with Israel and Egypt, you know, he has a reputation or had a reputation for being for strong Israel supporters as perhaps too pro Palestinian. But looking back at pushing through and went through unanimously the vote to establish the Holocaust Memorial Council and build the Holocaust Museum, that is part of Jimmy Carter's legacy. That he was then hired as part of the Carter center by multiple presidents to go be election monitors all over the world to make sure that we were spreading democracy and human rights. There's a lot of very cool stuff to Jimmy Carter and I wanna say first and foremost with that, the 77 year love story with his wife. I went to see Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter speak when I lived in London and they were talking about the work of the Carter center and about eradicating disease and sp democracy. And I was so overwhelmed by the palpable affection that those two had for each other and that it, it just radiated from them. A, A marriage of equals that I had not seen before. And I thought it was so special and I was so lucky to have been able to see it in person with another 5,000 people that were in the room watching them. But those are my quick thoughts.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I think he's getting a lot of well deserved recognition a because of the extraordinary life he lived, but also because of the contrast and that is to think about one president exiting the stage and his character and the way he acquitted himself and the one entering the stage. The contrast is just so palpable. And I'm on a board of a startup and the chair of the board is this former. I forget what it's called. There's this like, there's so many amazing units of our armed services where they find these incredibly superhuman, like, fit and also very smart people who decide to serve their country.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And he was on one of these mini submarines off the Iranian coast where they weren't allowed to ever surface for fear they'd be detected. And their job was to perhaps evacuate of operatives from the shores of Iran or some, they had some strange, I forget what the group's called forward something group. And they would kind of go in first for recon in very sensitive places where it's like, don't get caught. And his job was to be in this tiny submarine off the coast of Iran, never, never emerging, if you will, and go out into freezing water and, and grab these people and put them back in a submarine that was floating at three miles an hour, four feet under the water. And if you missed the submarine, you were, you were going to drown in freezing water. And he was talking about the rescue, the failed rescue attempt. And that the one thing they knew when they'd heard that one of the helicopters had been downed and that they'd called off the mission was that his presidency was done. That was going to be the October Surprise, really. Kind of inflation, oil spiking. Reagan was an outstanding candidate. The other place I go is, I think about trying to evolve or shape a more aspirational vision of masculinity. As I think masculinity has been perverted and conflated with coarseness and toxicity incorrectly. And as people try to develop a more aspirational form of masculinity, I'm constantly asked, well, who are some great role models? And I think about Jimmy Carter, you know, Grew up in Georgia, married for 77 years, went to college, then did graduate studies in nuclear physics, decided to serve his country, joined the Navy, was actually in an incident involving an accident and went into the room to fix some sort of nuclear reactor or something. Was seen as by his colleagues as a brave person. Became an entrepreneur, took over this peanut business, ran for governor. Just a really intelligent, disciplined, serve your country, generous, loving man. Like, a nice vision for, like, I think, a nice role model for young men. And he said something that really struck me, and I thought, God, this guy's so prescient. He gave a speech and he basically said, we've entered this. He was kind of giving Americans a talking to. And he said, we've now become a nation where people aren't judged by what they do, but by what they own. And he kind of predicted very early this, what I call this era of idolatry, of money, where any of this type of behavior. I was at a conference, and when we were in Q and A, I'm like, look at what money has done to us. And that. I was speaking about Elon Musk. People always ask me, what do you think, Elon Musk? I'm like, if you had a son who had been married three times and had 13 kids or 12 kids and wasn't living with any of them, if you had a son who slept with a loaded gun next to his bed, if you had a son that was addicted to ketamine, if you had a son that was accusing people errantly and incorrectly of sex crimes such that they had to move. You know, if you had a son that was behaving this way, you call your son, and you'd try and do something, you'd be embarrassed for him, you'd be embarrassed for yourself. You would think you were a failed father. But if he's worth $400 billion, all is forgiven. It's just as if we have absolutely decided the cash can replace any semblance of character. And he saw that. And also he has defined what it means to be a post post presidency. Like, I really like these people. Are you generally more likable post presidency? I would argue that Clinton has not had a great post presidency because of some of the shit that's come up about him or that's haunted him. I think George Bush has had a great post presidency.

[Jessica Tarleff]

You know, I mean, seems nice.

[Scott Galloway]

He draws, painting, seems like a nice man. But Carter, really, it's not as impactful.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I mean, it's all well and good to hang.

[Scott Galloway]

None of them Are building houses.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Right, right. With their own hands for the poor. Yeah, there's a.

[Scott Galloway]

With their wife of 77 years holding the toolkit or him holding her tool belt. Yeah, this guy. Yeah, he really did.

[Jessica Tarleff]

He's the anti commercialization of the post presidency and everybody else has been. And the quarter of a million dollar.

[Scott Galloway]

Speaking fees, a big book.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I don't think so. And you know, all the more power to you, I think, you know, if the market can work in your favor, go and take advantage of it. But no, I think if we looked into the tax returns, we would see, you know, modest incomes living very similarly to the way that they did when they put that peanut farm in a trust so that the American public could trust him when he came into office. And I look at, and maybe this is just my estrogen talking since I already said I love, you know, their marriage and their love story. The Obamas also have an incred love story, but their post presidency, or his post presidency is much more commercial than the Carters. Right. And that's not to say they aren't doing a world of good, but we're as likely to see them as a Habitat for Humanity site as we are to see at the Oscars. And Jimmy Carter is not showing up anywhere. Well, now he's really not showing up anywhere, but he's not showing up anywhere.

[Scott Galloway]

To throw out anything, we hope.

[Jessica Tarleff]

But eradicating guinea war. Right. And that's, that's a real marked difference, I will say, in Clintonian defense. I think the Clinton foundation has done a lot of good. But obviously, as pillars of society, the Clintons, no one holds a candle really to the Carters. And you see that the way his passing and his last year in hospice has been covered from local press, people who knew him, I mean, this is someone who was part of a community in a way that someone who went on to the presidency never is. Right. Like this is the local guy who's sitting at the end of the counter when you show up at the diner. And I don't know how we would ever get that back again. I can't see anyone on the horizon who would be like that. I think times maybe demand that it's not possible anymore. Right. It costs too much to get elected. You need to be too famous. You need to be too good on a podcast.

[Scott Galloway]

Too polarizing.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Too polarizing. You need to have a partner that does something swanky and cool. You need to have kids that fit into a certain bucket. All of these things that didn't exist when Carter got elected. But it feels like a real loss for humanity and dignity in politics that he's gone. And I hope that we'll consider the full raft of accomplishment. And obviously there are some things that he did that were not fantastic. And there's a reason that Reagan came in in that kind of fashion. Right. He opened the door big time to conservativism.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Jessica Tarleff]

But a really decent and good person and it was sad to see him go. But, you know, he said, I want to live to vote for Kamala and I don't want to live to see Donald Trump as president again. So he got out on time.

[Scott Galloway]

BOX James Earl Carter, dead at 100 years of age. Rest in peace. Before we wrap, let's dig into the state of the Democrats. In a recent New York Times op ed, James Carville admitted Democrats lost in 2024 because they failed to connect with voters on the economy. Per our previous comments, despite solid GDP growth and easing inflation, many Americans felt the party wasn't addressing their struggles. Trump capitalized on this by making the economy a central message, winning over middle and lower class voters. Carville says Democrats need a clear, relatable and urgent economic narrative to win them back. At the same time, younger generations are delaying or skipping milestones, including homeownership and parenth, some by choice, others because of rising costs and societal shifts. Researchers warn this trend could become permanent, reshaping families, communities and the economy. What do you think Democrats can do to try and reclaim the economic narrative here?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I tend to, and maybe I'm too conciliatory in some ways, and I think part of that is a function of working in conservative media that I'm around people that I disagree with all the time and I can see what place they're coming to the table from. Right. I think most people are actually generally motivated by wanting good outcomes and we just have different approaches for how to get there. But Tom Suozzi, who's a conservative Long Island Democrat who we're gonna have on the podcast at the end of the month, had an op ed in the New York Times that came out on New Year's Day where he talked about, you know, where we can work together, where we have to push back. And I think that but employing some of that thinking and making sure that we're coming to the table with our own ideas, especially working against this super slim majority on their side will benefit us. But I wanted to double tap on the Carville op ed because he says it's about the messaging problem and there was a fivethirtyeight Politics podcast about the 1992 election that came out that I was listening to of, like, how Clinton and Carville did it. And they were talking about, you know, it's the economy, stupid. And they just kept repeating very simple marketing phrases over and over again so that no one forgot what their campaign was about. And the Democrats, we didn't have that right. We had like 10 slogans that people were going for. For Clinton, it was putting people first and it's the economy, stupid. And that's what anyone really remembers right from the 1992 election. But making it just about the way that we message things ignores the fact that there are real fault lines in the way the American economy is working for people. And I'm scared that we're going to try to paper over those real problems with rhetorical flourishes and think that we should win in 2026, which, by the way, a midterm, it turns out, more people who are like us that are paying a lot of attention, versus a regular American that showed up in 2024 to vote for Trump. So what do you make of that? I mean, I want to bring up credit card debt again. I mean, this number is staggering. So it's at 1.17 trillion now of credit card debt. So everyone is basically living off their plastic at this point. Like, that's a real indicator of how the economy isn't working for people. Right. And how do you square that with Peter Baker writing in the New York Times that Biden is handing off the best economy that anyone has gotten since Clinton gave George W. Bush the economy at the beginning of 2001?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, the numbers are just. There's perception is reality, but the perception is much different than the reality in the sense that in terms of the economy, we have the strongest growth in the G7, the lowest inflation, something like 50 or 60% of all GDP growth on a gross level globally is going to come out of the U.S. our stock market represents half the value of the entire world. Stock market, low unemployment. I mean, the problem is similar to the future. What William Gibson said about the future, it's here, prosperity is here. It's just not evenly distributed, and people really feel it. I would argue this was a referendum on young men. It was supposed to be a referendum on women. It wasn't. Or women's rights. But the messaging, I think, has to. And I'm a fan of trying to keep it simple. And that is, it needs to move, in my opinion, from identity politics. I really hope there's a reckoning here. My Biggest fear around Democrats is to say, no, we weren't progressive enough.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And that they say we. And there's very articulate, compelling people on the left will say, no, we need to stick to our values. It's because we weren't strong enough about our values. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, that's. You want to talk about things getting even worse for us, I think they need to move dramatically away from. It just really frustrated me at the Democratic National Convention. I felt like this is a special interest group on parade. All right, do we have an Asian Pacific Islander to speak to other Asian Pacific Islanders. And assuming that, oh, because I'm Asian or Pacific Islander, I want to hear the following things and feel seen around issues related to me as opposed to. That's not how I identify myself. And I think we really saw that with the Latino vote. They said, look, talk.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Being Latin does not. It doesn't define me and what I care about. And the, the example that really struck me, and I'm a huge fan of Sam Harris and he brought this up, was that. Do you remember the, the court case or the court case that just happened with a young man was dealing or there was someone who appeared to be mentally.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Daniel Penny.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Basically was on trial for murdering Jordan Neely. Well, yeah, he was trial for it. He was accused of murdering but acquitted. And what they found in surveys was how you felt about it was if you found out who was white and who was black, that because it was a white man who had people would argue in self defense or doing what he thought was the right thing, ended up killing this individual. How you felt about it, especially among Democrats, was knowing the identity and race of each of the parties. And it strikes me that, and I think it's a fair accusation of Democrats is that we're in many ways more obsessed with race than Republicans. And I think we need to get away from this. I would exit identity politics as aggressively as possible and move right into the discussion around inflation, around the economics argument. But until we move away from everything the Democratic Party being around, we're here to protect and advance the rights of this group as identified by their race, their religion, their ethnicity, their nationality. I think we're stuck in this inexorable downward spiral.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah. I mean, to some degree it's a good thing that society has moved in the direction that it has. It is a bad thing for Democrats politically that we've been slow on the uptick about it. And you look at someone like and AOC who, you know, split district Right. South Bronx went for her and they went for Donald Trump or Jared golden in Maine. And this happened all over the country, right. Where people said, I want to choose my fighter. And that was the key theme of this. If you are going to be fighting for me, I don't really care if you have a donkey or an elephant sitting, you know, on the other side of your name or your party affiliation. And I think that that's probably a net positive for us. But I would expand off of, you know, you have to talk about the inflation and the economy for sure. But I think the Daniel Penney example is a really important one. And we covered that case day by day over at Fox.

[Scott Galloway]

Fox would love that story.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Well, but it's a great story. It's not just because it's a Fox red meat story.

[Scott Galloway]

I brought it up.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah, you brought it up. And the only interview that Daniel Penney has done is with Judge Niempiro, who's on the five with me. And he, he served the country honorably. He studying to be an architect. He was on a train where a mixed race group of people were all expressing fear of Jordan Neely, someone who was on this list of the top 50 most vulnerable homeless people in the city and arguably shouldn't have been able to be on the streets. And you see Kathy Hochul now pushing for some involuntary confinement for people who are public safety threats. And she's only doing that because Richie Torres is going ballistic on her on basically a daily basis. But while you were away, I don't know if you saw this story, a undocumented man who had been deported multiple times set a woman on fire on the F train in Coney island here. And that that kind of stuff has taken this so far beyond partisanship where you just think my quality of life is not up to standard. You know, we are paying, when you.

[Scott Galloway]

Pay the highest taxes in the nation and people are being lit on fire on public transport, Right.

[Jessica Tarleff]

People, you know who she was an alcoholic. The Times finally has a big piece about her because they were able to figure out who she was because she was incinerated, you know, to the level that we couldn't do DNA testing for a while. And you have that image of also a police officer walking in front of her burning body and not doing anything, walking by, people just walking by. But New York City has a plea out right now. We need 1600 new cops right now. We don't have enough. New Orleans, the terror attack there, there was a point when New Orleans, just a few years ago Only had something like 700 beat cops. You can't protect New Orleans. No good to talk about. Right. You know, all of that we can't lose sight of because that was part and parcel of the message that the Republican Party was, was able to put out there. And I don't say message in that. It wasn't rooted in real life. I mean, people were. People that we know are walking around saying, like, I don't feel as safe as I should. I am taking the subway less. I mean, congestion pricing is coming in as. As to solve a problem of having everyone in Ubers and cabs because they're not on public transport as much. I'm the only person, at least on air at Fox. I take the subway in and out. I am very different on the subway now than I used to be. Right. Like, like not both AirPods in Lost on my phone. Right. I'm paying attention to what's going on, and I'm going from Tribeca to Times Square.

[Scott Galloway]

You're seeing that wave, though. It's checking. Back in San Francisco, they, you know, they, they've said, okay, no more. It used to be if you, if you stole less than $900, they weren't going to prosecute.

[Jessica Tarleff]

36.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that, that, that shit has gone away. And it's, by the way, just to end here on a positive note, I absolutely love Representative Torres.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Oh, he's the best.

[Scott Galloway]

And I just, I. I did. One of the things I like about him too, is the far left just doesn't know what the fuck to do with this guy. Because the intersectionality of a gay, Latino, black Democrat who is also millennial, very millennial, but also very pro Israel and wants to get away from identity politics. Like, oh, wait, we want to like you, but you're making it hard to. I think he's exactly kind of the Democrat we want to.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Well, I've told you that. Brian, my husband's dream ticket. Yeah, Fetterman Torres, he's like, give me veteran Torres for 2028. And I mean, Richie Torres has a huge Jewish community that's part of his district. And my friend lives there, and he says that he's at the synagogue every week. He shows up at his kids religious school. They know him. They're like, oh, Richie's here. I mean, he's doing public service in a way that feels more Carteresque. Right. Than it feels like what today's current looks like.

[Scott Galloway]

He's fantastic.

[Jessica Tarleff]

We have a lot of work to.

[Scott Galloway]

Do, so just, we gotta wrap up here just before we Biden is going to give his kind of last conversations here. Any thoughts on any advice for him or do you think what can we expect here? Does it matter? Will it be forgotten? This is sort of his last shot here. Any thoughts?

[Jessica Tarleff]

I am hopeful but resigned to the fact that it'll probably feel like a lot of what we've heard before and of going over accomplishments and a lot of them were what you were just talking about. Right. With the success of the economy on a global scale. Right. And taking us from where we were with, you know, 15 million people losing their jobs, losing over a million lives, to Covid, et cetera, and where we are today. And those are legitimate victory laps to be taken. But I really want, especially as there are very real questions and a lot of people who are huge Biden supporters who now feel very differently about him and the presidency and his cognitive abilities. I want to see the empathizer in chief come out for one last hurrah and to talk about not necessarily to say, you know, why Kamala lost or why the Democrats lost, but to show some of that humility and that connection to the average person that makes him more Scranton Joe than the 46th president of the United States of America. And I was listening to Anthony Blinken on. He was on the Sunday interview on the Daily.

[Scott Galloway]

I listen to that as well.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Yeah. And. And I was not impressed.

[Scott Galloway]

God, it's so funny you said that. I was so impressed.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Sunny slash, we were both crying. I was like, this is.

[Scott Galloway]

Why didn't you get back in her face when she was basically so outraged at the Israelis? I'm like, how come the New York Times and this individual doesn't appear to be that outraged about what happened on October 7th? How come he's not back in her face saying what on earth? It just struck me as so Biden esque that he was playing defense and being very thoughtful and understanding her as opposed to saying, saying what the fuck? This is our ally. Of course we came to their defense. Of course we were going to provide them. Would you rather us have 10, 200 pounds? There's no elegant way to kill someone. And you keep citing statistics from Hamas, better known as the Gaza Health Ministry, because you keep taking their word and not the word. He just did not get back in their face. And to a certain extent, Biden should be able to take a victory lap around the U.S. s support of Israel. And instead they were millie mouthed about it because they wanted to have it both ways. Is they fucked up so badly on Israel because they not only they did the right thing. And they refused to take credit of.

[Jessica Tarleff]

It by having to talk about it in normal terms. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, the electorate has made it clear that they don't care if you say it fancy, they just wanna hear it. And I felt like, stab me in.

[Scott Galloway]

The front, not in the back. Don't give me a bunch of bullshit and say, well, we feel for the people. Yeah, of course we do. We all do. It's the greatest concentration of child amputees in the world. It's tragic. And you know what? What? That can be laid at the feet of hamas and the 70% of Palestinians who still support Hamas. And that's what they believe. Their actions support that view. They deployed two carrier strike forces right away. In my opinion, the Biden administration has been very good. But what's the point of doing good if you're not seen doing good? And so they said, well, we can't lose the Islamic vote in Michigan. And guess what? They voted more than expected for Trump. And the general view was, I'd rather be stabbed in the front than in the back anyway.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Well, that's not gonna pan out that well for them either. They're gonna be plenty pissed within a few months. But we are. I mean, I thought Blinken was a great representation of how mealy mouthed our elected have been about this. And that's not to say that I agree with everything that they've done. Right. I think that there is a strong case that you could make that we are more involved in global wars or conflict than we should have been. And that one of the promises was this return to normalcy. We'll make sure we bring everyone home. You know, him saying I wouldn' anything about the Afghanistan withdrawal. Excuse me?

[Scott Galloway]

Come on.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Like, that's pathetic. But he sounded just like your average poll. And no one wants that.

[Scott Galloway]

It's hard to end a war. We fucked up on the whole we got some stuff right, we got some stuff wrong and he made the mistake. Mistake. I think Vice President Harris did when she was on the View and asked, what would you do differently? And she said nothing. Anyways, this is going to be an exceptionally interesting week and an exceptionally interesting year. Jess. I am thrilled that we're doing this. Please subscribe to our distinct Raging Moderates feed. We've had a fantastic first six months. We want to carry our momentum into 2025. That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Chagrin and David Toledo. Caroline is leaving Propg Media So sad. I hate it when people leave voluntarily. I don't.

[Jessica Tarleff]

You prefer to just fire them.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, no, I don't mind that as well.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Caroline, would you like to change your exit strategy?

[Scott Galloway]

Caroline is going to the dark side. She's joining the Sith Lord known as Alphabet. So I hope.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Good luck.

[Scott Galloway]

By the way, we're going to break their ass up. We're going to spin YouTube just because I'm angry at them. I'm about to go into my next podcast where I'm going to suggest that we break that shit up. And by the way, I wish you the best of luck. I think it's important you go to work for crack dealers sitting outside junior high schools, getting them addicted to video and social platforms.

[Jessica Tarleff]

Would you be nice? Caroline, this is awesome. Congratulations.

[Scott Galloway]

I can't believe she's leaving. How can you leave?

[Jessica Tarleff]

She's been with you forever.

[Scott Galloway]

All that, you're leaving, all this. But Caroline, you're been a fantastic culture carrier in addition to being very confident. We wish you the best. I think you're gonna do great there.

[Jessica Tarleff]

It was great getting to know you these past few months.

[Scott Galloway]

You're always welcome back. You have that when you're leaving Disneyland. And this is fucking Disneyland. This is the Matterhorn of careers. This is Space Mountain. This is good stuff.

[Jessica Tarleff]

I say, everybody, people vomit on Space Mountain all the time. I am jumping.

[Scott Galloway]

You are leaving the park, but I am stamping your wrist in case you decide to return. You are always welcome. You just have to flash your risk and say, I was wrong. I was wrong. I want to stay with Scott, the most generous, loving person professionally in the history of modern society. And I screwed up by leaving the park early. You were always welcome back. Your wrist is stamped Caroline Shagrin. Best of luck to you. Thanks for all your good work. All right. Our technical director is Drew Burrows. He's staying. Won't say anything about Drew. You can find raising smart guys. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great rest of the week, Joss.

[Jessica Tarleff]

You too.