The Suburban Women Problem - Season 2, Episode 45

Jasmine Clark: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Jasmine Clark. 

Amanda Weinstein: I'm Amanda Weinstein.

Rachel Vindman: I'm Rachel Vindman.

Jasmine: And you're listening to the Suburban Women Problem. So today is a special episode of the pod because tomorrow is Election Day, which means that this is our very last chance to remind everyone about just how important it is to vote. 

Amanda: It's here! It's here! I feel like, it's like in Frozen: “It's coronation day! It's coronation day!” 

Jasmine: I know! Okay, so I'm smiling, but this is like a nervous smile because tomorrow is the day that I find out in my own race, you know, just how things went. And to remind everyone, I am running in a very competitive race because of redistricting slash gerrymandering, where somehow some way Republicans found a way to draw a Republican district– or I wouldn't say Republican district, I will say a purple district– in a very, very blue Gwinnett County. And that district happens to be mine. But I'm feeling great. And you know, really just hoping that as many people as possible vote for those who haven't voted already. 

Amanda: I think it's so funny, so Casey's been in the news a lot lately here because they have called his race the closest race. 

Jasmine: Me too!

Amanda: I know! You guys are like, what is it, like Sister Cities.

Jasmine: Twins!

Amanda: I know! 

Rachel: It’s stressing me out and I'm not even involved. 

Amanda: Jasmine, do you have a bottle of champagne ready? 

Jasmine: Yes! Multiple. I, however, I'm kind of a Nervous Nancy on election day, so I'm opting out of having my own party with a bunch of people around. I'll have my campaign around. But you know once results come in, we hope, because so many people have voted early, we hope that we do get the results that night. It might take a little bit longer, but hopefully it doesn't. But either way, yes, I am ready to celebrate. I have my bottle of champagne. Or bottles–

Amanda: Yes! 

Jasmine: –of champagne ready. You know what I actually have been really contemplating is like, what song should I play? I don't know yet.

Amanda: Ooh. I like this question. Wait, what song are you gonna play?

Jasmine: I don't know yet! It's gonna, it'll be a surprise.

Rachel: Now I'm just gonna be texting you song ideas.

Amanda: Rachel's always got good song recommendations.

Jasmine: Yes! Yes she does. 

Rachel: I like music, but not like some people like music. Like I don't really like to go to concerts and I can't tell you like every, like, what a cover of every album looked like. I'm not like that. But I'm thinking like either Lizzo or Taylor Swift is like what comes to mind. I'd have to think about it more.

But look, I haven't slept through the night in weeks and I am very anxious about this. 

Jasmine: I think we all are.

Rachel: And I think, you know, I said it on the last episode is that... you know, I just can't believe we're in this place still. But what I've kinda come to realize is, you know, we're here because of the hugeness of the issue. I mean, I never thought that I would still be talking about politics after Biden was declared the winner, right, in November of 2020. And then January 6th happened, and then we just, you know, continued to see the hits on our democracy and how entrenched the problem was. Like it wasn't just moving on. We didn't have a peaceful transfer of power. And, and so it's gonna be a slog for a really long time. And so that means it's not like voting once. It's voting every time. 

So for everyone, you know, who's complained about people saying “this is the most important election of our lifetime”... I mean, every one is, yeah. Every election is for a while. Until we get out of this, like, perilous state. But again, I mean, I think that we've had other times in our history where it was touch and go. You know, even when we were a new country, we had times. After the Civil War, there were times… I mean, it didn't just end, you know? We weren't alive then so we kind of picture that it was, or you know, that it was okay, but it took a minute. And the Civil Rights Movement, another huge time of like, “which way is this gonna go? Is this gonna work out, you know?” And so, I think we're, you know, probably in one of those moments, but it means we gotta keep fighting and not give up.

Amanda: And our votes are our voice. 

Rachel: They are! And people are realizing that again.

Amanda: Yes! So in my opinion, extremists don't just need to lose. They need to lose big. They need to lose big because they need to get the message. 

Jasmine: And boldly.

Amanda: Yes! A big, bold, huge loss because this is not okay.

Jasmine: When it comes down to it, if you care about the quality of the education that your kids get and them having access to books, and if you care about children being nurtured and taken care of, instead of being bullied by the people who are supposed to be the adults in the room, if you care about getting our democracy back on track, this election is that important to you. Every issue I think that any person cares about, any person listening cares about, this election touches in some way. 

And so we gotta get everyone to turn out. We gotta get, I, I love when Stacey Abrams says this, so I'm gonna say it again. This is a time where you gotta put your differences aside. You call up your friends and make sure they voted. Call up the people that you don't like, make sure they voted too. Call up your exes and say, “Hey, did you vote?” You know, make sure every single person in your life is voting. You can make a difference, honestly, and especially in some close races, by just getting three or four people to vote and telling those people to get three or four people to vote as well. So like all of it matters and tomorrow is the day.  

Amanda: Did you do your voting selfie sticker? Did you do a selfie with your voting sticker? 

Jasmine: I did, like a long time ago.

Amanda: That's how I pressure people, is I take my selfie and I send it to them. So depending on the group, they get a different message. So one group did get the message like, “It's time to get your vote on, bitches!” And then they got my picture. Not everyone got that. That was not on Twitter . 

Rachel: This is why… everyone's like, “you should run for office!” Guys, this is why I can’t run for office.

Amanda: Haha, same. 

Jasmine: But I also think you guys like, tomorrow is such a big day. Make sure you know the details. If you haven't voted in a while or if this might be your first time voting, have a plan. Know when you're going, how you're going, who you're going with and where you're going. Like know all of those things. 

Rachel: You know, sometimes when I go vote, I'm always like, “what if there's gonna be something on there that wasn't on the sample ballot?” Cause I always look up my sample ballot. And I always think, “what if there's a question on the test that I didn't study for?” Because this is, this is who I am. And it's like, it's okay. Just go and do your best. But it's never happened to me. There's never been a surprise question on a ballot if that I've looked up because it doesn't work that way.

Amanda: Oh yeah, sample ballot. That's a good point cause a lot of people get intimidated by things like judges and issues. Sample ballots help. I texted a few of my friends who were lawyers about a couple issues. And I was like, “Hey lawyer friends, I don't understand this issue. Can you give me the rundown?” And they definitely did and it was very helpful and I appreciated that. So I have no problem, like, asking people, “Hey, what do you think about this?” And I go to people I know and that's really helpful.  

Jasmine: Yeah. And I’m gonna point out one other thing because this is really important too. If anybody were to ask me, like if it was up to me, and I think I've said this before on the show, ballots would be in the opposite direction where local races would be at the top...

Amanda: Ooh, I love that! 

Jasmine: And federal races would be last. Because local races affect your life more than the federal ones do. That is just the reality. But the reality is also that that is not the way that ballots are ordered. 

So I'm gonna say this because it's really important. Please vote all the way down the ballot. Those State House and State Senate races are so important. These state laws, these are the people who control how much money goes into your schools. These are the people that control what goes into your communities. You know, these are the people that are determining whether or not books are going to be banned. You know, things like that.

So just remember, please vote all the way down the ballot. Yes, senator is important. Yes, Congress is important. But so is governor, state senate, state representative, judges. Any of those things. School board, city council, county commission, all of those different things. Please, please, please vote your whole ballot.

Amanda: I mean, especially now because we have a Supreme Court that is not protecting our rights, which means yes, it is now– whether we like it or not– it is now up to a lot of states whether or not women have basic rights. And so they're super important.

But no matter the results, these elections... so I'm sure we will see states where women are disappointed and we will have states where women's rights are not protected. But I have been so impressed with all of the engagement that I've seen from suburban women and it has been amazing. And the conversations I've had, so many women come up to me and open up and talk about really personal stories that affect their voting. 

And I know I've said it before, this is not a meritocracy, right? So this I learned early on, I dunno if I told you, I actually ran in high school for our chair of student council and I lost. I made my best case of why I was the best suited for this position, and I lost to a dude who got arrested for bashing in mailboxes. 

Jasmine: Oh my gosh. 

Amanda: I know, right? I ended up getting the position anyway because once you get arrested, they don't let you serve on student council. Cause you can do that. But that's not true for our politics. Like you can still get arrested and serve.

Rachel: Wow. You guys had tighter rules for your high school student council than we have for public office. That's a little depressing. Thanks a lot. We'll end on that note. Just kidding. No, let me try to offer something a little bit more hopeful.

When I did the Troublemaker Tour you know, I was so encouraged by the women who started at zero just a few months before, but really learned that they could easily and quickly talk to their friends on their own time and just got so excited and so involved. And they felt like they were making a difference, not only in their own friend group and talking to their friends, but also in teaching other women how to do the same thing and empowering them to have agency to speak out and not just feel so defeated, but to feel like they were combating this extremism and the things that they saw that they didn't like. And that's really the power. 

We've talked so much about the importance of voting and the importance of these elections. You know, probably for, for the next several election cycles. The reality is our votes were always important. We just kind of forgot that. And we can do it all. Voting and politics don't have to be your whole life, but we do have to value it and just like all the things in our lives that we value, we honor it by giving time to it. 

Amanda: And we need to send a message to our policy makers that they need to value suburban women. We have a lot of say, right? So we are a voting demographic. We're a voting demographic that can influence other demographics. 

Rachel: Yeah. I really think women and young people have realized, like, “Hey, we're here and you guys didn't listen to us. You know what? The biggest way we can do that is to vote.” And then you're not gonna be able to say that young people and women don't vote, so we're not talking to them. We're only going to parties with people over 65. 

We're showing them, and I am positive that on Wednesday morning you are going to see that these groups voted in numbers that make people stand up, are gonna make our elected officials stand up and pay attention to what we're saying and we're thinking. I really firmly believe that.

Amanda: I hope that is true. And if we want things like paid leave, we need to show them that we are a big demographic. If we want the real changes we wanna see, if we wanna see changes in this country that aren't just fighting extremism… that's a basic, like we need to fight the extremism. But if we wanna see better investment in our schools and if we wanna see paid leave, we need to show up and we need to show up big.

Rachel: No, I completely agree. Like we have to show them that what we want, that there are people who are going to support those policies that we're asking for. And you support the policies by voting for people who support the policies. And so that's why it's so important. 

But I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic because I think everything's gonna be cautiously optimistic for the next many years, but I think that we are, I see such an excitement and I hope you do too. And I just really encourage you to vote tomorrow no matter what. And that you make sure that your friends are voting too. So if you have to pull some babysitting duty or sit in the car with some kids, do it.

Amanda: I'm optimistic. I'm also cautiously optimistic. That is where I would register on the scale. 

Jasmine: I think we're gonna have some surprises, in a good way. And so that's what I'm looking forward to. I am cautiously optimistic, always, that's literally how I move through life. 

Rachel: Not a bad way to do things. So we’re not gonna have a regular episode this Wednesday, and a lot of results won't be in in time for that anyway. But you can follow us on Twitter at @theswppod and we'll be posting election updates, doing some live videos, and reacting to the news along with everyone else. 

If it doesn't go your way and we don't get the news we want in every race, don't lose heart.

Jasmine: Don’t lose hope.

Amanda: [singing] You can go our own way…. 

Rachel: Haha. Amanda has some songs for you, we'll post them on @theswppod at Twitter, but we'll be back again next Wednesday, November 16th, to talk about the results, what they mean, and where we all go from here. Hopefully we will all get to toast to a blue wave.

Brady Weinstein [child]: Hi! 

Jasmine: Hi Brady!

Amanda: Can you, Brady, can you say, say, “thanks for joining us”?

Brady: Thanks for joining us!

Amanda: Maybe can you say, “see you again next week”? 

Brady: See you next week! 

Rachel: Aww. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for voting, and thank you thank you for fighting for democracy. We'll see you next week.