Sometimes Kasie Whitener sits in for Fran Halloran on The Afternoon Drive with Keven Cohen on 100.7 The Point, local talk radio in Columbia, S.C. In this episode, she interviews Nicole Sanchez, South Carolina Chair for the Better Ballot SC initiative which promotes ranked choice voting.

Learn more about Better Ballot SC here.

Learn more about the South Carolina Libertarian Party here.

Thanks to Parenting Porcupines for letting us use their channels to publish this content.

Sometimes Kasie Whitener sits in for Fran Halloran on The Afternoon Drive with Keven Cohen on 100.7 The Point, local talk radio in Columbia, S.C. In this episode, she interviews Nicole Sanchez, South Carolina Chair for the Better Ballot SC initiative which promotes ranked choice voting.

Learn more about Better Ballot SC here.

Learn more about the South Carolina Libertarian Party here.

Thanks to Parenting Porcupines for letting us use their channels to publish this content.

Check out Part 2 on Episode 65.

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The Libertarian Party is a big tent. Someone told me last week he thinks everyone’s a libertarian, they just don’t know it. The Party appealed to me (Kasie) because it’s a place to be socially liberal (marry who you want, wear what you want, etc) and government-conservative (we don’t need laws for every damn thing, ya’ll). But here’s the thing: all big tents got clowns and ours like to show their asses.

Twitter controversy, LPNH is ridiculous. Explain the basics.

Our biggest problem in elections, cycle after cycle, is voters not knowing enough about Libertarian principles to support our candidates. When social media messaging like LPNH’s bullshit hits like it did this week, it’s the rest of us that have to sweep up the shrapnel.

At a time when we need real leadership, what we have is memes and hot takes. Is social media really a place for leadership? For discovering new ideas and exploring potential political fixes?

Every party has fringe members – the extra-woke left, the racist-as-hell right, and our big tent isn’t any different. But shouldn’t we be?

Shouldn’t our principles about granting liberty to others as well as ourselves mean we’re tolerant of the worst of us? Or should those principles mean we don’t accept people who reject others on racist, homophobic, or sexist reasons?

How do we get the right message out when so many wrong messages are louder? More obnoxious? More inflammatory?

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Earned media is more valuable than paid media. But both are hard to get.

Branding matters for consistency and professionalism. BUT great branding can’t cover up bad positions. And no by needs that many palm cards, handouts, banners, and other suchness. We need metrics for realistic purchases of these kinds of materials.

What are the relevant milestones? Do we now know what to expect in engagement on social media, event attendance, etc? What are unrealistic expectations for engagement or attention?

What do voters care about? How do you earn their trust enough to be able to ask them?

What did we learn crafting positions on all these topics?

How much support (money, volunteers, media coverage) do we need?

If someone is thinking about running for office, why would you tell them NOT to? Why would you tell them they should?

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South Carolina is one of the States that has been in the news in recent months. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade there were several states who decided that they should legislatively place controls on the providing of abortion services. Many implemented bans after certain gestational benchmarks, but some states (ahem, South Carolina) took it to the extreme with attempts to completely ban abortions altogether. 

Sadly, a chamber full of old white men were able to draft and pass legislation that is a gross violation of womens’ rights to make medical decisions about their bodies. Thankfully, the South Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled that such a ban violates the right to privacy for women, and they nixed the whole thing. Now, these statements are always ones that get folks worked up, so before we spiral into an abyss of hostility, let’s talk about this like reasonable people. 

One of the things people often say is that the “purpose” of these bans is to “protect the sanctity of life” or the “rights of the unborn”. While it is certainly true that life is sacred, and we can have all sorts of conversations about when life begins, it is not the place of the government to be an enforcer of morality. There are instances when women are not given a choice in getting pregnant, and forcing them to carry a pregnancy to term is cruel. 

For example, if a woman (teenaged or otherwise) becomes pregnant as a result of being raped would you stand face to face with her and tell her that she must carry to term a pregnancy that is the result of one of the most violent acts a human can take on another? Where do her rights begin in this situation? 

OR- what if a woman finds out mid-pregnancy that the child she carries will almost certainly claim her life if she carries to term? Where do her rights begin in this situation? 

Another reason many support these bans is because they are concerned with late-term abortions or partial birth abortions.The fact of the matter is that this is not the norm. Women are not just getting pregnant for fun, carrying a baby for 7-8 months, then having an abortion. I have been pregnant twice, and I can tell you that the idea of this happening with regularity is absolutely absurd. 

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COVID is still a thing and yet I’m always a little startled when someone says they’ve tested positive or that they’ve been exposed. Sometime back in 2021 someone said we would learn to live with it and I guess we have. But I don’t want to forget and it feels like I am, and like people have. We’ve forgotten the powerful lessons we learned during COVID. And while there is some lingering momentum for some groups, on the whole we’ve gone back to business-as-usual and it’s scary.

While all demographics were affected by the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the raging debates over vaccines and mandates, we represent a very specific group: working moms. We are (mostly) on the millennial-side of GenX – in our 40s – and have kids in elementary and middle school – two high schoolers now. Melissa works part-time from home, Jess full-time from home, and Kasie full-time outside of home (but it’s academia and there’s lot of flexibility). We were fortunate to stay employed during COVID, but our experiences are not unique: overwhelmed, confused, angry, frustrated, sad, scared, and fed-up. 

If you hadn’t had the “I’m the only grown up in the room,” realization before COVID, no way you came out the other side of it without at least once saying, “Why are all the so-called adults idiots?”

So tonight we’re talking about the impacts of the COVID crisis – and make no mistake it was the perfect storm of crises – on working moms.

Let’s break it into categories of crisis.

• Your family. Your kid’s schooling.
• Your employer. Your job.
• Your mental health. Your coping mechanisms.
• The aftermath: what has irrevocably changed and what has (frustratingly or thankfully) gone back to “normal.”

Your Family: what did you learn about the people you live with? Do you like them? Are they fun? My sister accused my family of having a “covid bubble” wherein we got really close, established inside jokes, and actually like one another. It’s alienating, she said, to anyone who’s not us. What about school? What did you learn about your kid’s school? This created a surge in school board candidates and elections. The near-total incompetence of the government-run school system was on display. Our superintendent resigned this year under pressure that began during COVID.

Your employer: how did your business handle the lockdowns? What was the effect on your job? On company culture? On your industry? Has it been easier or harder since then to get back to pre-pandemic levels of productivity? We know a lot of industries are still recovering from the pandemic-caused supply-chain disruptions. Our legislators are quick to make laws forcing industry to recover, but these things have to work themselves out. Who should solve the problems the pandemic caused?

Your mental health: What did you learn about your own ability to cope during COVID? I’m a social person, so not seeing people nearly crushed me. We started having socially-distanced driveway happy hours. Every day, not just Fridays. It really helped us to see our neighbors and friends during COVID. Our family was a spectrum of caution. Some didn’t care one bit, or at least thought the risk was worth it to be together. Others were very cautious. I need exercise, too. It keeps me sane. So my daily walking habit with my friend and neighbor helped a lot. We played a lot of golf, Charlie and me. 

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People are protesting in France and we have a different take on this. Let’s talk about the Supreme Court decisions and checks and balances and where we stand in terms of the need for revolution. If our branches of government were checking each other, would we even need revolution? 

1. Are we the beneficiaries of our ancestors’ disdain for authoritarianism, or are we just looking for authority of a different kind?

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Living in the US we are taught from very early in our education about the revolution and the freedom our founding fathers wanted. It is human nature to question and challenge authority, but we are freer to do that than in other places in the world. 

1. When is violent uprising warranted, and when do we settle for peaceful protest?

Peaceful: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks

Violent: Jan 6? Black Lives Matter? Ruby Ridge?

Note- The Peaceful are celebrated while the violent are not. Why?

1. How old should we be before we’re expected to revolt and/or enact change?

Our founding fathers were in their late teens and early twenties when they began their mission to stand against the King in an effort to establish a society founded in liberty. 

1. Are we willing to engage in a complete overthrow of the system for the possibility of something better?

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