Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Civility and Civic Duty with the American Moms

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

In this episode, Sharon is joined by American Moms, Andrea and Brittany. After serving as a press secretary on Capitol Hill and a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Andrea and Brittany took their knowledge about the inner-workings of the federal government and started a viral Instagram account that takes the overwhelm out of politics. They share funny stories from their jobs and speak on the importance of promoting civility in politics. Sharon and the American Moms also give advice to listeners about how to teach their children the basics of American government and involve them in respectful political conversations. For more information on this episode including all resources and links discussed go to https://www.sharonmcmahon.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Red One... We're coming at you. ...is the movie event of the holiday season. Santa Claus has been kidnapped? You're gonna help us find him. You can't trust this guy. He's on the list. Is that Naughty Lister? Naughty Lister?

Dwayne Johnson. We got Snowman! Chris Evans. I might just go back to the car. Let's save Christmas. I'm not gonna say that. Say it. Alright.

Let's save Christmas. There it is. Only in theaters November 15th. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are? Yes, we deliver those. Goal tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hey friends, thank you so much for joining me today. I have my friends Andrea and Brittany from The American Moms here today. And I think they are going to offer you some really practical tips, great insight, little fun facts about what it was like to work on Capitol Hill. They were speechwriters for a president, press secretaries for members of Congress, and now they run a civic education Instagram account. We've said many times, Andrea and Brittany and I, that we in many ways are very

kindred spirits. So let's dive into my conversation with the American moms. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. Yay! Thank you guys so much for joining me today. Both Andrea and Brittany have worked in Washington, D.C. in various capacities. Brittany, I would love to hear more about your background and what you did on Capitol Hill. I worked in the Office of Presidential Speechwriting at the White House. And people are always naturally curious about that. You know, what was it like? Was it like the West Wing? You know, it sounds so glamorous. Tell me all about it. And I will tell you, it is not like the West Wing at all. To relate it to any TV show, it was more like the office. There was just like quirkiness going on and like total nerds

and like everyone's just so funny. And it was just the most fun place to work, but it was also super stressful. So I'm like, yeah, part of it was glamorous. We got to go to events on the South Lawn of the White House. We got to meet the president in the Oval Office and watch Marine One arrivals and departures and the Queen of England. When she came, we got to go to her arrival ceremony. So there's like really cool things like that.

But I think what people don't realize is that the physical process of writing a speech is so much more complicated than most people realize. There were at least 16 of us all working on different aspects of a speech. And we probably worked 16 hours a day. It was just crazy the amount of time you have to put into it. The president is speaking any public appearance. Where he says any little thing, you need to write a speech for it. And so whether it's, you know, Girl Scout of the Year or meeting with the NBA champions or talking to a faith-based group, whatever it is, you have to go through this whole process. There were probably at least

three speeches that we had to get ready every single day. Oh my goodness. And no matter what the speech was, it still had to go through the same process. So it was this constant churn every week of speeches. Yeah. It was a lot of work. How does one even get a job as a speechwriter in the White House? Based on your experience, how do you get a job doing that? Is it all who you know? Is it all connections? Do you just apply online? What happens? Well, I imagine the process actually hasn't changed a great deal because I feel like jobs and politics are all somewhat similar. You kind of have to know somebody to get your foot in the door, but we always joked around in the halls of the white house. There was like a lot

of different kinds of people, the Ivy leaguers who, you know, their parents donated a lot of money and they got them a job. And then there's like us, like normal people who like really worked hard and made it a goal to do something like this and tried to find a way to make it happen. So you really do have to know somebody. I was lucky because I worked on a reelection campaign for Bush Cheney back in 2004. And so I knew a few people that way. And so when I went to Washington, D.C. after that, I spent a year working in the press office for the Secretary of Health and the U.S. Surgeon General. And I helped craft messages for them as well. And so I had a little bit of experience. So when an opening came up, a friend worked there. He's

like, hey, you know how to do this. You're a writer. Let's get you an interview. So that's kind of how it happens. You have to kind of know somebody that knows somebody and you have to be willing to put in your time. You better be willing to start small. Yes. And I do have a little hint. If people are interested in, but they're like, I don't know anybody. Washington is basically run by interns. I don't know how much of a well-known fact that is, but like Capitol Hill and like the executive branch, like they would be lost without their interns. Anyone can apply for an internship, whitehouse.gov. You can go apply, don't apply for a summer term because it's going to be the most competitive then. And a lot of people get their foot in the door because they were an intern first. And so the staffers saw how hard that they worked. There's one little tip. Love it. And Andrea, I would love to hear more about what you did on

Capitol Hill. Well, it's not as exciting because nobody even knows who their senators are, right? I was lucky enough. I did not intern on Capitol Hill. I came from the reporting world. I was a reporter for a couple different CBS affiliates and I just got sick of living in poverty. Reporters don't make a whole lot of money. And for years, Brittany would tell me, you need to come to DC. It's so amazing. And I just kind of shrugged her off. So I moved to DC without a job. And it happened to be that Senator Bennett's press office, they called it the press shop, was hiring. And I applied and I was from Utah and they liked that I was a reporter and I happened to get the

gig. And I really knew nothing about the inner workings of the federal government. I was a local reporter in Tallahassee, Florida, where we did the local government, but I didn't know a whole lot about the federal government. I wish I would have taken a government for grownups class. I wish I would have had them back then. It would have been really helpful to me. So I worked there and I'm like, I don't know what it means. What is cloture? I have no idea. And they say, write a statement for this. I'm like, I just make up a statement. Are you guys going to pick what they say?

That's amazing. So it's my job. I just pick what they say. This is fantastic. Elected officials don't often write their own statements. Their staff does it. And sometimes they'll approve it and sometimes not. And most elected officials,

they don't tweet themselves or Instagram themselves. Most, we should say, right? Some do, but most of the time it's their press office. So that's what I did was I got to help craft statements and document everything they did. And I would talk to reporters and it was a lot of fun. And I quickly caught Potomac fever there, as they call it in DC. And it opened up my eyes to so many different things. It was just a really wonderful experience. People seem to be in kind of one of two camps. You either believe people are mostly good or you believe people are mostly bad. And because of that viewpoint, you either view government and elected officials as mostly bad. They do not have your best interests at heart. Or you are of the persuasion that these are people who are just doing their best and trying to do a good job for their constituents.

And they're mostly good. They're mostly caring. Nobody gets it right 100% of the time. But do you fall into one of those two camps? I think because we worked in Washington, and Brittany probably thinks the same thing, is that I think that most of them have America's best interest at heart, or they would not be there in the first place. It is a hard job, and you get a lot of crap for it. And I don't think anybody is up for that kind of thing. I think they're generally really good people who just go about solving problems differently.

And that is it. And sometimes we agree with the way they solve problems and sometimes we don't. And that's usually when we're like, oh, they're not patriotic or they don't love America, but they just have different ways of solving a problem for our country. And that doesn't make them unpatriotic or un-American because they choose to solve problems or look at them in a different way. Yeah, I agree with that, Andrea. I would also just add to that people are complicated and they are imperfect. So anytime you have a system that is run by imperfect, complicated people, you're going to get people who mess up and make mistakes and who maybe get caught up in power

instead of their constituents' needs. But overall, people really are trying to do their best. People are complicated and people are imperfect. I did an interview recently with somebody who was a flight attendant on Air Force One for over 20 years. She worked during the Bush administration, both Bush administrations. It was fun to hear her perspective because as a flight attendant, you are in close proximity to the president for many hours at a time. We're not talking about like saying, Hey, as you walk past in the hall. So this is not a dirt dishing scenario, but can you give us any little behind the scenes tip your behind the scenes, fun facts, who has some kind of fun juicy detail they could share with us i have a funny story okay president bush and speech writing i had not been at the white house

for very long when the winter olympians were invited to the south lawn for like a big like congratulations on everything you accomplished type ceremony. And so I had to help with the speech for that. So the Olympians weren't just the Olympians that we all know, like the ones we're familiar with. They are also the Paralympians who sadly we are less familiar with. And so there was one named Lonnie Hanna, who I know all about now. He had cancer and had one of his legs amputated. And he was one of the gold medalists for sled hockey. When we're writing a speech for the president, sometimes we'll stick in little notes, little brackets to give him clues. We call them speech mentions.

So, for example, when Lonnie Hanna, the president, was like, you know, welcome Apollo Anton Ono and welcome this person. And Lonnie Hanna is here. We recognize, okay, Lonnie Hanna is perhaps a more feminine sounding name than a lot of men have. So we put male in brackets and said that he went on to beat cancer to win the gold medal in stud hockey. That day, the president, we were always reminding him, like, don't forget your glasses, you know, wear your glasses.

And that day he did not take his glasses. And I was out on the cell phone listening to the speech. Remember, I was brand new. And here's what he said, Sharon. And I was out on the cell phone listening to the speech. Remember, I was brand new. And here's what he said, Sharon. And I was like, oh my gosh, they're going to fire me. He said, welcome Olympians. You know, we have Lonnie Hannah here. She had breast cancer and went on to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

And I was like, oh, no, that's wrong. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Exactly. And so I literally thought I was going to be fired. I went back to my office and I called the West Wing and I was like, what can we do? Can I go apologize to Lonnie Hanna? Like, we really like we did the best we could. We're so sorry. And they're just like, it happened. It's fine. Clearly, presidents are imperfect and they just need to wear their glasses sometimes. So, but really like President Bush was a very funny,

funny man. And I don't think his humor came through a lot. That's the one thing I would say. He was super smart and hilarious. Presidents should maybe just get LASIK. Exactly. Maybe that should just be like a thing. People's eyes age. There's no shame. It is what it is. But maybe we should like just get LASIK so we don't have this issue. I would love to hear more about why you think it's important to have civility in political conversations.

Let's be real. First of all, let's not pretend that America has always gotten along. Like disagreeableness is kind of in our DNA, right? Like we've been out there throwing tea overboard into the ocean since the very beginning. And yet social media absolutely has amplified our ability to insult one another and to create division and disharmony. So I would love to hear more from your perspective about why it's important to have civility in political conversations. Again, like you said, social media has amplified this divisiveness. And in some ways, social media is super great. But in this

particular instance, it is not helping anybody. And I feel like part of that too is we have this constant pressure to speak up every time that big hot topic comes up in the news. Like if you're not saying something, that means that you aren't passionate about this topic. That shouldn't be the case.

But we also live in a world where we are judged big time on who we voted for. But we are all so much more than who we voted for. We need to stop treating each other like that's all that matters. And I think that's this toxic atmosphere that has come from social media. It means it's extra important to teach and model kindness, like, especially because our kids are all watching, right? They pick up on all of this. And the last thing that we want to do is create this next generation who like kindness isn't even a thing. So the way we treat each other, no matter what our political

preference is, no matter what our skin color is, no matter what our religion is. And I always tell my kids, like you find what you look for. So look for the good. And that is true for people. And it is true for situations that we just all need to just take a step back and take a deep breath and maybe bite our tongue sometimes. But I don't want to bite my tongue. I want to say everything that comes in my mind. And then I want to have thousands of people validate me on the internet for that. I listened to your, to the pantsuit politics podcast you had, and I loved what one of them said that we don't have to issue a press release for ourselves

every time an issue comes out. We don't need to like give our statement every time something happens. It's not necessary. And I think there would be a lot more unity in the world and happiness if we didn't have to have that validation from everybody. But it does, it starts in your homes.

It starts in the way that you talk to your kids. And if you're going to bash every politician, then your kids are going to go out and bash every politician. It makes a sad world, but it all starts in our homes. And I think we forget that sometimes. It behooves us to remember that politicians are human beings. And when we begin to dehumanize human beings, that is a dangerous precipice. It's a dangerous thing to teach our children that we have reduced human beings to caricatures of themselves based on their appearance or based on the way they talk, or we can all think of a million stereotypes of prominent people in politics. And when our children hear us talk about politicians like that,

they absolutely are internalizing that that's the way we should talk about politicians who are humans. Exactly. We had someone who wrote a message yesterday and said, let's remind everyone our children are listening and let's not pass down the hatred to our children. Kids get bullied at her kid's school all the time for political issues they don't really even understand, but they hear soundbites from their parents and they pass it on. She said, when my brother was little, this is a kid in kindergarten, mind you, he would hear his parents say, Jimmy Carter just got elected. Our country is over. And he couldn't sleep at night because of it. He would lay in bed, tossing and turning, worrying about this thing that he didn't fully understand that he heard his parents say.

That's never okay, right? We just need to stop making a blanket statements like that that are clearly not true. We've had plenty of bad leaders in the past, right? And we've gotten through it and we're okay and we are stronger and better than that. Turns out the country didn't end when Jamie Carter got elected. Yeah, exactly. Turns out the whole thing did itself implode. Not with him and not with any other president. We have checks and balances for a reason. Like it's going to be okay. When we're children, right? Like we grow up with this idea of like, well, what would you do if you were president for a day? Right. What would you do? And we grow up with this mythological viewpoint

that the president is an all knowing, all powerful wizard. Right. And they're like, what would you do? Well, first thing I would do is I'd wish for more wishes. And then, and then I would give everybody a million dollars and 1,000 pounds of jelly beans. And so the president is all powerful, when in reality, the president has less power than we often give him credit for. Do you agree? Exactly. When you're president for a day and you want to get every kid a candy bar, it's going to have to go through Congress first. So there's more to it than that. That one day is going to turn into probably months and months for those kids to get that candy bar. And then a bunch of kids won't get the candy bar. And then we'll have to open a hotline for what to

do if you didn't get the candy bar. And then they'll complain on social media about how some people got candy bars. I don't like this kind of chocolate. Why'd you give my kids this chocolate? I don't like white chocolate. That's right. This is made overseas. What about American jobs? I mean, this is a very problematic statement you've just made, seven-year-olds. It's especially true about like an individual congressperson.

The power that an individual congressperson has is very small. Yeah, absolutely. A bill even to be introduced to Congress takes a lot of work, but then you have to get so many co-sponsors and people to sign on board with it. And the chances of actually passing Congress are very, very slow. You look to see what, you know, people are always like, well, what has my congressman done for me? What has my senator done for me? There's bills that they have helped pass and you can find that all online, but it's often very small. And often their work is found in things like earmarks, things that they've really pushed for to get to their districts or their states or whatever.

And often earmarks are viewed as bad, but often it's these people trying to get funding for their state so something can happen in their state. There's a lot to it and it's a lot of hard work. And I mean, if it was hard 10 years ago to get people to be a co-sponsor with you, especially someone on the opposite side of the spectrum, it is very hard today. It's so true that when people are like, well, what have they done for me? It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream or just plain old ice. Yes, we deliver those. Goal tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Visa and OpenTable are dishing up something new. Get access to primetime dining reservations by adding your VISA Infinite Privilege Card to your OpenTable account.

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That's what's behind the Blue Cow logo. Dairy Farmers of Canada. How would you like them to go about passing a bill alone? You know, like to me, it just shows a small lack of understanding about how bills actually get passed. It is actually an extremely lengthy process and you need a lot of people to agree. So in your Instagram bio, you say taking the overwhelm out of politics. And I would love to hear more about maybe somebody who feels overwhelmed by this whole system. Like they scroll Instagram and it's just full of like

doom and gloom all day long. And it is easy to feel overwhelmed. It's especially easy to feel overwhelmed if you don't have a lot of understanding and all you're hearing is people saying negative things constantly. It's very easy to feel overwhelmed. So what would you tell somebody who feels overwhelmed and doesn't know where to begin? I think often the overwhelm part comes when we don't understand. I think there's so many people who don't like tuning into the news, whether watching it or reading it, because a lot of it seems so complicated and dark. And so people just avoid it altogether. And then if that happens, you kind of fill in the dark about some things. If we're not actually educating ourselves and what's happening in our world, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. And so we often just tell people,

go to lots of sources. Don't think that this one source is the end-all be-all for news. Go to lots of places to find your news and you can figure out what's happening by reading lots of sources. It's not so overwhelming feeling when you have a grasp on what's actually happening in the world. I would agree with that. And I think even just the process of finding multiple sources of news is overwhelming to people because like, I don't have time for that. And there are so many easy ways to get the news that there's almost like no excuse. You can get a news briefing sent to your email every morning by like something like the donut or like all sides now outline bullet point and send them to you're like, Oh, huh. I'd like to know more about that. You can click on the link. You can ask Alexa to give you the news briefing for

the day. If you find that you don't have a lot of time, listen to a news podcast while you're making dinner or whatever it is that you're doing. Being informed is so much easier now than it was like when our parents were growing up. So much easier. as like when our parents were growing up. Oh, yes. So much easier. It's a great point that a lot of major newspapers have daily news podcasts and they, you know, are like 20 minutes,

very quick recap of what's going on. And because they're short, they tend, in my experience, they tend to be less inflammatory because they're not having the guests on who are like, and this person is making it. So the country is going to hell in a handbasket. And this person is making it so that we're on the race to destruction. It's just like a quick recap. And so to me, if you are feeling

overwhelmed, like those kinds of daily news podcasts can be just a great summary. If you like to listen to the news. And especially because, yeah, because they're condensed and limited to a certain time, they kind of just want to stick in the facts. That's the important stuff. So yeah, that's an easy place to do it. When I was growing up, when you were growing up, when our parents were growing up, your news was like the 30-minute ABC nightly news with Peter Jennings. You know what I mean? Or your daily newspaper, they really have to condense everything that was happening in the world down to a 30 minute chunk, man, you knew something was really up when the news just kept on going and it preempted the primetime TV shows. Then you knew like dang this is a big story when it cut when it cut into tgif i'm like yes like that was the worst right it's so funny andrew and i were talking because we didn't grow up

talking about politics per se in our household but we always watch the news like twice a day with our parents like at five o'clock when we were getting ready for dinner we watched the news like twice a day with our parents, like at five o'clock when we were getting ready for dinner, we watched the news. And then before bedtime, we probably just watched it for the weather, quite honestly. So we knew what to wear to school the next day because we didn't have a weather app back then, but we sat and watched the news together. And I think even just that little act opens up your awareness. We cannot live in bubbles, right? Where we think everything is just about us and our own little sphere. There's a whole world out there. And I think even just watching the news is kind of what got Andrea and I interested in politics in the first place. How do we take the overwhelm out of it? It's we start normalizing it. So it's not like a big deal when you're watching the news because it's just

something that you do. You've made a habit of it. You know what's going on and it's become a normal part of your life. Also, I think too, we often think of politics just as being a federal or a national issue, but there is also things at play in our own communities. And I think if you're feeling overwhelmed, start there. Look to see what's happening in your town. What do you like that's happening? What don't you like? What could you get involved with? Who are the people that are making those things happen in your town and how can you lend them a hand? Those kinds of things also make your world seem a little more significant and less overwhelming when you figure out that the things actually happening in your own town have more of a day-to-day impact on you than what's

happening on Capitol Hill or in the White House. I am always a big advocate for reading your local newspaper. First of all, local newspapers are tremendously important. We need somebody keeping tabs on what is happening in our communities. It's not like Peter Jennings is gonna be covering the local news in Peoria, Illinois. You know what I mean? Somebody needs to be keeping tabs on our local communities.

Also, it's not overwhelming to read your local newspaper, to me, to be able to be like, okay, well, that's ads. I can skip that page. Oh, okay, school board meeting. I can quickly read about the school board meeting. You know what I mean? It just makes you feel like a more informed community member.

Yeah, and even those same small town newspapers, they also often will Facebook those things and Instagram. So if you find yourself always meaning to look at things there instead, well, just add that to your feed. And that makes it a lot easier to consume that way, too. But also skip the comments. Yes. And don't read the comments. Skip the comments. And don't be a commenter yourself. Don't get into those.

Not worth your time at all. No, there are actual things you could be doing with your time. And that was, too, that was another one of the reasons we're like, okay, there are not very many accounts talking about politics and government online. Citizenship isn't a spectator sport, right? Like it involves a whole lot more being active. And I think so many people thought for so long, oh, I am doing my part as a good citizen. If I make a Facebook post or if I call somebody out, or if I just tell everyone how I feel. Not even a part of it. It's just the noise. I agree with you that like, you're not doing your part as a citizen by just posting on Facebook

about something. That's not helpful. Maybe it is to your mom or your sister. I don't know, but it's not always helpful to everybody else. And that's one of the beauties of having a newspaper delivered or getting, like you were saying, getting an email where it's like, here's your news briefing or listening to the podcast, because there's no comment section in the actual piece of paper sitting on your dining room table. We also have to realize some people have personalities that make it easier for them to navigate these situations than others. And so I feel like probably all three of us are like, yeah, it's easy for me. And I feel like it's probably easy for both of you to be able to cut through the noise and be able to be like, I don't need to read those comments.

That is not helpful. That's not useful. I don't care about that. Be quiet. But other people have a much more difficult time turning away from that or not reading the comments or deciphering what is real and what's not real. What would you say to somebody who's like, how do I know what is real? Oh, that's hard. Yeah. We don't need to think it's our civic duty to read through the comments or to like even read the comments. Like you actually have much more

important civic duty at hand and reading through the comments and commenting on every single person's thing about how they are wrong is not actually your civic duty. It's hard to know where to go for what's right. And I think that's probably why your Instagram account is so wildly popular is because everybody's wondering that, like, where can I go? Where can I find it? That's like the heavy question weighing on people's minds. And you have half the country who thinks that all news sites are equal and half of them are like, well, where else do I go? I have to read something. So I'm going to read this. So this is what I'm going to do. That's why it's important to read multiple news sources. Yes, we all know that the news slants a certain way. So read places where it slants differently.

That's probably my biggest tip. There's also things that people don't consider about the news. Like there are such things as libel and slander. And the news isn't just going to go make up a bunch of facts up and share them with the world that are erroneous. I mean, sometimes they do get it wrong, of course. And coming from a reporter background, like I know I reported on things that maybe weren't 100% accurate all the time. I did my best. But there are slander and libel laws at stake. And those companies are going to have to answer to a lot of lawsuits if that happens. So the news is not just out making up things all the time.

Whole cloth inventing things. They're not just like, we invented this story that is completely fake. That's what the onion is. And so you can go there if you want to read the fake stuff. But yeah, that's not happening. And I think it's hard for people to believe that because there's so much noise about that kind of stuff. I would love to hear more from both of you. What do you think is our civic duty? We know it's not reading the Facebook comments, but what is it?

I think honestly, it's to look around and think, how can I better where I live? How can I make something better? I keep thinking like if every child in school was taught that they all have a role to play, not just to sit back passively while we watch two or three other people play those roles, I think how much of a different place our country would be. Sharon, I know that you love interesting, lesser known stories from history. There's one that I told my kids so many times,

it has to do with the Statue of Liberty. Like when the Statue of Liberty came to the US, it arrived in like hundreds of crates and had to be placed in a park because there was no pedestal to put it on. So Americans were supposed to raise money for this pedestal and they just wouldn't, they wouldn't do it. They thought like, oh, wealthy people should do it. And so Joseph Pulitzer, who owned, I think it was the New York World at the time, he wrote in his paper, look, the Statue of Liberty is not from the wealthy people of France to the wealthy people of America. It is from all the people of France to all the people of America. So come on, like start donating.

And do you know who came to the rescue for this pedestal plight? It was children. School children. Yes. They would send in money that they were saving for the circus or that they were saving for candy. And one little girl sent a nickel and she said, I wish it was more, but drops make an ocean.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, like that is kind of what us all getting involved in. Maybe one single person just doing their part isn't going to have the impact that the world needs. But if all of us collectively do our part, drops make an ocean and huge, amazing things happen. And that is what our country was founded on, was multiple people doing their part. You know, it wasn't just George Washington

rounding everybody up. So many players all had a different role to play and we all have different roles to play. I think it's just like such an important message to teach our children, to have them grow up with those foundations of what it means to be a citizen and what civic engagement actually means.

I did this like little informal information gathering on our account the other day because I wanted to know, if parents didn't talk to their kids about politics, I wanted to know why. And two things stood out. And one was that they didn't think they were informed enough themselves. If you don't feel like you know enough, get your kids involved and learn together is one solution. And two, the other reason they're like, oh, my kids are too young. I want to

keep them innocent longer. I'm like, well, I'm of the mindset that no kid is ever too young to talk about these things. Like even a toddler can recognize the flag and that it's a symbol of our nation. Like, even small children can understand voting and we can take them with us to vote. They can understand, with our older kids, we can talk about, this is who we voted for. Here's the values that I use when I'm judging a candidate. And, like, they're so interested in those things. So there's a whole foundation that we can be setting for our children about what citizenship means and at the same time you know maybe it's a good

reminder for all of us too i love the idea and i totally agree with you that all of us doing something small actually creates a lot more change than a small handful of people trying to do it all yeah i mean think about the money that you've raised online to help people. Like if it was just one person, 10 people who have lots of money, come on, donate. No, it was lots of people pitching in a little bit that made this huge difference to a lot of people.

That's right. And also the act of donating, the act of being involved in government, the act of being an involved citizen, that actually is beneficial to the giver. It's beneficial to the citizen. So it's more than just like, well, it's good for the country if you're involved. It's also good for you. And feeling like you're contributing to your community and contributing positively to your country actually makes you a better person.

Exactly. Yep. And I think too, a lot of the reasons why it's hard for people to talk about politics with their kids as they think like politic has this huge, like negative connotation. Like people just think, Oh, yuck, not digging into that with my kids. But politics is just about those things we were just talking about, being a good citizen, being kind, looking around you, finding ways to help. And even just talking about things that are how our country is run, how it works this way about checks and balances about you know the three branches of government it just doesn't mean talking about the weedy things that make us all sick to our stomachs all the time or make us mad

or angry or get us fired up that is not what politics means there's so much more to it than that such a good point that politics does not have to be like let's sit down and let's get into the nitty gritty about abortion. You know what I mean? Politics can be like, okay, so the president has some power, but who helps make sure the president doesn't get too powerful? You know, like the actual structure of how the government works is tremendously important to understand as you're growing up. We spend so little money on civics education that we spend on average $50 per student on STEM education. And that is well spent. We should spend money on STEM education. And we spend 50 cents per student on civic education.

That makes me sick. And I know even like in my own town here in South Dakota, civics is being cut because we have a unit on it in this other class. Maybe they need more than a unit. Maybe they do need the whole class, you know? Right. Maybe one unit in one class that one time in 12 years is insufficient. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, if we want something to change, something has to change, right? I think we forget that we're just talking about something needs to change. Doesn't actually do anything for something to change. Something actually needs to change. Well, before we go, I would love to hear if you could just offer parents one little piece of advice. I'd love to hear from each of you. Okay, I'll start first. I have little kids.

Mine are seven and under. So people are often like, oh, it's too young to talk about things that are important about our country's history. So something just easy that we do. Firstly, in our nightly prayers, we always pray for our country's leaders. And I think when that's on the forefront of your mind and your kids know that that's something important, they want to know why and why are we praying for our country's leaders? I think that simple task can mean a lot. Also, it doesn't have to be a big overwhelming thing to talk to your kids about history or about politics.

We just do little things like we are learning to count money right now in first and second grade. And so we talk about who was on this money. Wow. How did this person get to be on this quarter? That's amazing that someone got to be on our money. Who are these people? And so there's easy ways to incorporate our love of our country into things that we're teaching our kids, even when they're young. Right. It doesn't need to be like, let me go purchase a full curriculum and we'll spend three hours a day. That's too much. We don't need that. No one has time for that. Right. And a lot of things that matter. Yeah. Along those lines, I would say my tip would be to normalize these discussions. Don't make it, okay, guys, we have to have a big family meeting. Let's talk about who we're voting for. No, make it a part of everyday conversation,

talking about politics and government and what's happening in our community is as normal as like talking about the weather. Like so normal. In fact, I sent my oldest to an art camp last year and where one day they were making stuffed animals out of their own drawings. And while the other kids are making like puppies and kittens, my son drew a political figure who I will not name and made the stuffed animal out of him because he's like, awesome. We talk about these people all the time. It's like proudly sitting on his bedroom shelf and just normalize these discussions and model the correct behavior. Like, is it okay sometimes to speak up about things? Yes, but you don't have to do it in a

hateful way. And children pay attention to those things. So normalize it and be the example. I also love the idea that we should want our leaders to succeed. Even if you didn't vote for them, you should want our leaders to succeed because their success is America's success. And so to work against our current leaders, to actively take this stance of dehumanizing them actually is to the detriment of our country because their success is our success. Beautiful. Yes. I love your message that all of us doing something small, all of us being civic-minded is more important than just like five of us trying to do all things. We all can do something that makes a difference. We all have a part to play. Drops make an ocean. I love it. Tell everybody where they can find you.

We are on Instagram at The American Moms. Yay. Okay. Go follow them today. Thanks for having us. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend?

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