I’ll go Spike Lee this round. He’s far from our greatest living director and I’m not sure how much he’s contributed to making America great.
Amanda Gorman, who thinking more about it probably should have been the first off this list. The person who if you erased all their contributions, the least would change? Probably.
Ananda Gorman
And Judy Blume is still on the master list
Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman, simply because she hasn’t done enough yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her greatest impact is still ahead of her.
Jim Lovell
Gorman again.
I’m going to stick with Amory Lovins until someone convinces me otherwise, but I also approve of the Gorman yeet.
I’ll take a crack at that convincing sometime today or tomorrow.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar
I’m sticking with him until he’s off the list; then I’ll switch to Johnson, if he’s still around. 
I’ll stay with Amory Lovins.
D’oh! I was definitely having a scatterbrained day. Sorry.
Our remaining nominees:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Athlete, writer, activist
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Amanda Gorman: Poet, activist, prodigy
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Magic Johnson: Superstar, survivor, inspiration
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Spike Lee: Filmmaker, Knicks fan
Jim Lovell: Apollo 13 astronaut
Amory Lovins: Physicist, energy activist
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
Janet Yellen: Economist, Treasury secretary
Eliminated
- Jim Gaffigan: Comedian, author, commentator
- Craig Ferguson: Polymath, director-writer, comedian
- Mitt Romney: Senator, impeachment juror
- Buzz Aldrin: Second on Moon
- Taylor Swift: Musician, songwriter, icon
- Tim Walz: Honorable political messenger
- Simon Biles: GOAT gymnast
- Judy Blume: Children’s literature icon
I vote for José Andrés again.
Amanda Gorman, who affected the people that watched Biden’s inauguration for 15 minutes and then nobody else until this thread.
Jim Lovell
Lovell for me.
Magic Johnson
I’ll go with Amanda Gorman this round. Due to her youth she hasn’t had the time to achieve greatness that most of the others on this list have. I’m not discounting her achievements, merely noting that her greatness is likely in the future rather than the past.
I’ll go along with @FlikTheBlue, @Snarky_Kong, and the others. You can’t score something like this solely on potential, so out you go, Amanda.
-“BB”-
Our votes this round:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Athlete, writer, activist - 1 vote
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef - 2 votes
Amanda Gorman: Poet, activist, prodigy - 7 votes
Magic Johnson: Superstar, survivor, inspiration - 2 votes
Spike Lee: Filmmaker, Knicks fan - 1 vote
Jim Lovell: Apollo 13 astronaut - 3 votes
Amory Lovins: Physicist, energy activist - 2 votes
Amanda Gorman is gone, but perhaps she’ll be able to write a nice poem about her moment of glory here on the SDMB.
Our remaining nominees:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Athlete, writer, activist
José Andrés: Humanitarian, chef
Joe Biden: President, uniter, overcomer
Warren Buffett: Level-headed billionaire
Bob Dylan: Poet of generation
Anthony Fauci: Physician, immunologist, scientist
Bill Gates: Futurist, philanthropist, billionaire
Jesse Jackson: Civil rights leader
Magic Johnson: Superstar, survivor, inspiration
Mark Kelly: Senator, astronaut, aviator
Stephen King: Great American writer
Spike Lee: Filmmaker, Knicks fan
Jim Lovell: Apollo 13 astronaut
Amory Lovins: Physicist, energy activist
Barack Obama: President, statesman, lawyer
Dolly Parton: Artist, humanitarian
Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialist leader
MacKenzie Scott: Philanthropist, prize-winning novelist
Steven Spielberg: Director, writer, entertainer
Bruce Springsteen: Singer, songwriter, activist
Elizabeth Warren: Fighting political foes
Janet Yellen: Economist, Treasury secretary
Eliminated
- Jim Gaffigan: Comedian, author, commentator
- Craig Ferguson: Polymath, director-writer, comedian
- Mitt Romney: Senator, impeachment juror
- Buzz Aldrin: Second on Moon
- Taylor Swift: Musician, songwriter, icon
- Tim Walz: Honorable political messenger
- Simon Biles: GOAT gymnast
- Judy Blume: Children’s literature icon
- Amanda Gorman: Poet, activist, prodigy
Voting for our next round will end at noon EST on Fri. July 4.
I vote for José Andrés again.