Freespoke the Election with Kristin Jackson
Overview of this Episode
In this episode of the Trust Your Voice podcast, host Sylvie Légère sat down with Kristin Jackson, Co-Founder of Freespoke.com, a new search engine platform, to prepare you to go to the next voting booth and how to follow the election results.
In this conversation, Sylvie and Kristin discuss:
What is Freespoke – what does it offer that’s different
Challenges in getting ready to go to the voting booth
How can Freespoke help you prepare for the elections
Helping others to figure out how to vote
If you want to be prepared and know what your ballot is going to say, you can look up your candidates on Freespoke. Check out Freespoke and download the app, and you can see the elections portal there. Download the app from the app store and start using Freespoke – we need your feedback to improve it!
Follow The Policy Circle on social and share Policy Circle briefs that you can use to host conversations and look for The Policy Circle’s Active Voter Guide.
We hope you enjoy the episode! Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple podcasts. Stay tuned for more episodes and be sure to subscribe to the Trust Your Voice podcast on your favorite podcast player.
Episode Transcript
Sylvie Legere 0:10
Have you ever felt challenged with making life changing decisions or leading in the public square or simply aligning your thoughts with your actions? Well, then you're in the right place. Welcome to trust your voice podcast. My name is Sylvie. And as a civically engaged entrepreneur, and mom, I understand the challenges of advocating for yourself and others. While attempting to balance your personal and professional demands. I had to develop a personal system of success in every area of my life. And now, I want to help you build your unique system and truly trust your voice, even and especially when it shakes. By the end of each episode, you'll be energized to spark your creative leadership make purposeful connection and confidently prioritize the matters that bring you the most joy. So let's start the show. My guest today is Kristin Jackson. She is the CEO of free spoke.com and use Search Engine platform. So I'll give you a little background about Kristin. She served on the hill as staff director of the House Foreign Affairs, Western Hemisphere, a subcommittee, just senior staff to a congressman from Florida, and was also legislative assistant to a congressman from Indiana. She has worked as an associate program officer to IRI, where she worked with a team to combat authoritarian regimes and promote democratic principles in Latin America. Kristin was previously a director of DCI group, where she led a team in design and execution of Public Affairs campaign. And she holds a bachelor's in political science from Missouri State University and a master's in government from Georgetown University. So welcome Kristen to the podcast.
Kristin Jackson 1:52
Thank you, Sylvie. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah.
Sylvie Legere 1:54
So our discussion I just wanted to share with our listeners, our discussion will prepare you to go to voting booth next week. And we'll also give you some new tools to follow the election results. So Kristin, it's so great to have you on the trust your voice podcast. And I would like before we get into the details of this, I would love for you to share with our listeners, the moment where you intentionally decided to really trust your voice and take a leap.
Kristin Jackson 2:23
Yeah, perfect. Okay, I'm excited to talk to your listeners both about free spoke and this election is such an exciting election season. So as I was listening to you give a little bit of my background, it's what's really clear to me and you'll hear this come up in conversation definitely with free spoke, but across the board is no the perspective and the the point of view from the person you're listening to. So as you read my background, I was like, oh, yeah, that does give listeners kind of that perspective of who I am. And I think what, what stands out in that, and what how I define myself a lot is, my story is really one of coming from that small town, Middle America, and then kind of stepping into Washington, DC and being driven by those big challenges and wanting to make a big difference. But keeping that same grounded Middle America point of view. So born in Nebraska, raised in Missouri, came out to DC because of grad school at Georgetown, first job ever on the hill, so excited and worked my way up to be the subcommittee staff director, the dream job that I never really thought that I was going to be able to achieve, I find myself there. And we can get into a little bit of this. But when you're a senior staffer on the hill, you do have quite a bit of power, you know at it at a young age, and you're really in the mix, and you really learn it. From there, when to that public affairs firm. And there you realize that influence kind of takes many shapes. Having legislation or congressmen talking about something can really drive an influence in how people think about a topic. But how traditional media, how social media, and how you get other influencers to step up can shape how the world has a nation is seeing that issue. So that's where I would caution the listeners think about where that information is coming from, what is that person getting for telling that story. And just be really aware of that, I feel really lucky, I've had the opportunity to deeply believe in the issues that I've worked on and really focus on what is at the core, but not every person truly believes in what they're selling. So, so know that perspective of where it's coming from. From there, I had the opportunity to work on a presidential campaign, and really got to see those political insights we'll talk a little bit about and then to the to answer your question, I broke free of government and politics and policy and in 2019, we launched freespoke.com. So I would just say that whole journey is what helped me find my voice. I'm very confident today of who I am, where I came from. I believe that I am to be in that room and I have value to bring to that conversation. And I'm really excited to tell you about freespoke because it's a It's a good story of something that we identified that need, we did the hard work, and we launched it. And it's seen that initial success.
Sylvie Legere 5:07
Yeah, well, let's talk about Well, it's interesting your passion for the truth and for everyone to have access to information that is devoid of bias as much as possible. So people can make their own decisions and and also seek to better understand what's really at stake. So let's talk about Freespoke. So it's a search engine, you guys launched in the summer of June 22. So just last summer, and you already have, I think, close to a million visits in a single month. And also almost a million downloads of the app, there's also an app. So what's different about freespoke?
Kristin Jackson 5:46
Yeah, so freespoke is that search engine that you can trust, you go to that search engine use, you enter your search query, and you feel fully informed? Once you see those search results. And once you're done with that search query, you can feel fully fully informed. And we'll get to how we can provide that. And you also have that benefit of knowing that we respect your privacy, we treat you like we would want to be treated. So we aren't going around tracking you and you don't look for a sweater and then have that sweater sold to you everywhere around the internet after that. So feeling truly informed at Freespoke and that respect to privacy sets us apart, I would say to your point, reaching a million visits in one month, a couple of months after launching really just tells us that people were onto something we identified that pain point that people are searching for. And what comes next is just finding that bigger audience that's waiting to hear about us. So what we how we take that, as people are saying, big tech, isn't it, we're not happy with our Google search results. And we are looking for something different. And we'll try Facebook. So that's the initial success. And then what we're seeing is our user base there, they're coming, and they're coming back. And they're engaging 567 actions in that visit. And I do just want to say up front, we do use a privacy friendly product analytics tool. So we're able to see the action in the product and make sure we're doing the right thing, but it's not tied to any individual. So yeah, so people want the solution. We as a company are saying Google isn't too big to upset we can take on that Goliath, and we're here doing it, we're doing it in three main ways. Google has major abuses in the area of censorship, they don't show all points of view, free spoke doesn't censor, no matter what the content is, we show all points of view on it. Privacy is the other one we brought up. There's abuses in privacy at Google, and we respect your privacy. And the third area, which is kind of interesting conversation is pornography. There's there's deep abuses in pornography, and it's often the most vulnerable among us who are victims of that abuse. And so Freespoke is the one search engine that says, Well, we're here to have free speech and the debate of ideas. Pornography really isn't a part of that. So we're not surfacing pornography in the search engine.
Sylvie Legere 8:07
Yeah, that's a big stance, because that's a big part, I think of searches, right. So let's talk a little bit about censorship and the content. So it's really interesting, when people go to the homepage of free spoke, you, you show the news, what's trending, the national stories, and you also categorize the news left, right, middle, and you have a section that says, everybody agrees on and you also have another category of what's been censored. So tell us a little bit more about how news, how information is categorized. And it's interesting, the way you present information is, is really is really different.
Kristin Jackson 8:48
Yeah, I wanted just to set the scene, Eisenhower has this great speech where he says, Don't think that you're going to eliminate an idea by by taking it out of the public debate, or by burning that book, right? The you don't you don't eliminate it by taking it off the shelves. It's still there. And so the way to combat and he was referring to communism, and he was saying we need to know about it, we need to know deeply about it, we need to know why people are drawn to it so we can combat it. And so that's really the idea here is that this nation is founded on free speech and debate of ideas. And so we go in and label every source. And we use publicly available data on you know, what sources are leaning and what way and we label it on the back end. And then our search engine is providing search results not only on recency and relevancy, which is what all search engines do, but when you search something, or when you're going through the news, you see content labeled left, middle and right, all in one place. And sometimes it's just the headlines that are interesting. You can quickly see that different point of view. You know, sometimes it was surprising to our team. We're like, oh, on a lot of these topics, left, right middle is actually covering it the same way you know, like it's Those, is there a few times when it's very clear that maybe one side isn't covering it, or the headlines are starkly different. And you think, Okay, this is that example that gets a lot of attention, where there is a divide, and you can quickly see the different points of view. Another interesting case that provides really interesting insights is Russia Today is an example of a Russia controlled media source. And DuckDuckGo gotten hot water because they said, Oh, we're going to insert, we're going to take Russia today out of our search results. And, you know, a lot of the DuckDuckGo following said, Hey, we trusted you to not be manipulating. And here like, let us see, let us think. And that's what free spoke allows. So we do show results that come from the Russia today, media source, but we label that pro Russia, which is clear, it's owned by the Russian government. So that is the Russian point of view when you read that. But what's really interesting is when you're seeing the news stories, if you come across a topic that is decently controversial in the United States, you'll often see that pro Russia content pop in there, and it starts to inform you like, oh, well, Russia is, you know, these outlets are writing on topics that drive division in the United States, and they're pushing that division because it helps them so you can read it, you can know that perspective. And then you're less likely to be duped by that kind of propaganda or that bias when somebody else is saying that I'm free on Facebook and doesn't know, you know, where it came from, you're more informed, because you're able to see it, instead of banning it.
Sylvie Legere 11:30
That is a great way of labeling sources of content by what it is. So you can like like you said, you know where it's from, and you know, that they're trying to sway opinion, public opinion a certain way. So that if you do see that repeated elsewhere on other media, you can learn to recognize it, when become much more critical of the news, which is, which is an important skill to develop to be able to always question the quality of the news and the information you are getting based on its source based on language and its use, and and also what's included or not included. And it's a full, like the focus a homepage is on the news when you you come in, but it's a full search engine. So I searched kind of the Chinese hotpot restaurant, I went to this weekend, and I loved his to see how it showed kind of the YouTube and Tiktok videos and then linked to the restaurant page. And then also links to reviews. And also, I noticed there are some cool features like Shop USA, which are American made and veteran owned brands and products. So you're able to feature certain certain organizations or products the way you want, right?
Kristin Jackson 12:41
Yeah, so you're right. It's a full search engine, we do help you see the top 40 stories of the day, if that's something you're interested in, in our news aggregator with with news from all viewpoints, but you can search for anything you can find American made brands, and you can you can quickly feel like you have the answer. If you want to read something quickly from the left and the right. You can see it there. If you want to do Christmas shopping and you know your dad loves, you know, American made products, you have a huge list of brands and products to choose from. So there's a there's a lot to see.
Sylvie Legere 13:09
Yeah, it's a full search. And it's an evolution where you guys are constantly improving it. You're also adding incorporating it what is called like free spoke stories. Tell us a little bit about that.
Kristin Jackson 13:19
Yeah, so we started with free spoke stories where you could. So we have stories, I guess we have a couple of things. We have stories on the homepage, which is the top stories of the day, this is our vernacular, at least the top stories of the day from different viewpoints. And then we have topics. So the free spoke topics is where we say okay, this is a hot button issue. And we want to make sure it's fully covered here, for example, climate change. Climate change is something where Google said, Okay, we are going we're not going to show anything in Google that doesn't support the climate consensus. And freespoke says, that feels very an American. You know, Americans like to debate and science likes to debate, you know, and research and, and so we have a free spoke topic that just makes sure it has all viewpoints. And you can quickly see all the viewpoints there in that topic. The elections portal is also set up kind of like a topic where there's a main thing that people are trying to make sense of. So how do we pull in all the different viewpoints and all the different features that let you really make sense of that issue?
Sylvie Legere 14:20
Okay, yeah. So let's talk a little bit more about the election portal. So you partner with various organizations that to provide your provide voters with information. Tell us a little bit about the partners there, and what are the features that are available on the election portal?
Kristin Jackson 14:38
Yeah, so one of the main partners that we started out with was Ballotpedia. And so I guess at the very beginning that desires to have one portal where you can get all the information to fully be prepared for Election Day. So Ballotpedia was one you can register to vote if you if you haven't registered to vote, check with your state, make sure it's not too late and there's a place to sign up right To vote there, you can pull up your ballot and you can say, Okay, I'm going to be stepping in and looking at a ballot soon, let me be prepared, let me pull up my ballot, you can do that in the portal, you can see the candidates, you can see the ballot measures that are going to be on your ballot. And then if that candidate has filled out a profile and Ballotpedia, you'll see that profile not not too many have have a profile there. So you can use the free spoke search engine, look for the candidates that you don't know a lot about and go in prepared to that when you're ready to vote. On November 8, we also partnered with Real Clear Politics. So also in the elections portal and free spoke, you'll see up to date polling, which is really one of the most interesting things that we see to track, as you're coming up, you know, this, this election, you'll see it over the last couple months, and then weeks, it started to shift in the polling, you know, pulls away for one candidate. So you can see the polling there, you can see the maps kind of the other addictive thing and election season is seeing that the map of the United States for the House races and where which counties are going which way for the house for the Senate, which states are going you know, towards red or towards blue, and same for the governors, and then there's a big portion of toss up that are still being trapped. So you can see those maps in there. So that's kind of the main, those are the main ways to know what you're gonna get when you go into vote, be prepared to vote, and then track the trends that are happening across the nation.
Sylvie Legere 16:29
Yeah, and I have to say, so the policy circle has a active voter guide. So if you go to the policy circles, social media, you have links to the voter guide, and I was walking through the voter guide with with my daughter. And that's where we discovered about PGL, where you kind of enter the your address, and it gives you your full ballot, including the ballot initiatives. And that's always an in so it's really a true like nonpartisan source of information of what will be on your ballot, and then you get the full profile about the candidates. But if they've ran before, especially if they ran before, who supported them, what are the issues what they voted on, you have like several links. So it's a great source. And it's it's awesome that you incorporate it into the portal so that the free spoke election portal becomes one stop to prepare for the election. So let's talk about following the election results. And especially when the election is called, that's always a challenge actually, on on search engine or just on news to follow. So tell us a little bit about how free spoke is helping in that arena?
Kristin Jackson 17:47
Sure. Yeah, it's such a charged day. And so you kind of get up and it's election day and you go vote and you're ready, you know, like, Okay, let's do this, let's let's have this, well, the polls don't close until kind of 6pm, Central 7pm. Eastern. And at that time, you can come back into this free spoke elections, portal and follow everything in one place. So as those as those polls start to close, there's going to be all kinds of information seeping out as we start to get these initial returns. So Facebook is going to have a breaking news ticker at the top of the page. And you know, that's gonna be a lot of tweets, because in today's age, that's where information breaks. So we're going to have all that breaking information, some articles, but you can really follow the news at the top there and that elections portal. And then we have a third partner that we've worked with decision desk HQ. And they interestingly, have, they were the first source to call the 2020 election, you know, we kind of think of the AP, but what I learned from decision desk HQ is they're taking a more technologically advanced way to get information, scrape information, show information, and AP just still kind of uses that more traditional call centers, guys on the ground. And so it gives decision desk HQ a bit of a leg up here. So we're partnering with them, you'll be able to see that down to the minute, as the counties are called, you know, you can follow the map and see the counties, the states and then when the states are called, and follow that that election real time in Frisco election portal. So the last thing that I do think is interesting when you're trying to follow an election, you can kind of follow these news, you can see the maps. But when you watch TV, and if you're watching a more right leaning or more left leaning commentator, you you learn a lot from what they're choosing to talk about, and kind of the mood of that newsroom. And so what we're going to have is a couple live streams, you can go back and forth from different viewpoints of live stream coverage of the election.
Sylvie Legere 19:41
Oh, that's exciting. Are you able to follow a specific state? So can you follow the election results for your state?
Kristin Jackson 19:49
Yeah, so your or the way that you'll get to that is there'll be a map on the main page and we're making it this kind of the main focus when you get there and then you can click Illinois and then you'll be able Let's see Illinois just on your screen. And it's just your counties in Illinois and those counties being updated until Illinois called.
Sylvie Legere 20:07
No, great. Well, that's exciting. Well, let's talk a little bit about policy and also perhaps the impact of the outcome of the election for you to weigh in, since you are a policy expert, to weigh in, particularly on tech policies, and you're challenging a giant. And I actually remember when Google came out and challenge, Yahoo and AOL, which at the time were the tech giants, right? So what is your take your perspective on the role of government in controlling big tech, actually, the Supreme Court will be hearing a case against really putting to test section 230. And whether or not big tech is still Google and social media outlets are still protected by section 230. So what is your perspective on the role of government there?
Kristin Jackson 21:00
Yeah, I do have I've been in this city in DC for too long to not give this caveat that these opinions are my own, I am quite opinionated in this case. So I'd love to dig in. But these are my own. So I am more personally a little bit more of a libertarian, I think I would label myself kind of that and ran libertarian, but knows that, you know, we need a strong defense. So I come out of the mold a little bit there. But I do not see a super strong need for government to regulate in this space. And that is a lot of what free spoke is about is able to say, hey, we can we can compete today we can compete and people laugh. But it's interesting because search engines are popping up. And so I think most people who are laughing are going to wish that they got in early and invested because the room to compete and the desire for a competitor is really strong. So today we can compete. However, if Congress and this is on the right and the left side, if they decide to start regulating this space, they can regulate us out of being able to really compete. So section 230, kind of in layman's terms, says that as a search engine, we are you know, Google and Facebook, we're surfacing Mother Jones and New York Times and Washington Examiner and the Free Beacon and The Daily Caller, right? We're surfacing all this content. And if that if they do something illegal and offensive, we want you to sue them don't sue us for surfacing that content. And, you know, the argument is we are not the content creators, neither Google nor free spoke. So we can't be sued in that way. And I, you know, the whole litigious society is a is a bigger debate and affects many different industries. But I would hate for, I think a lot of the motivation to regulate big tech is to just say, we don't know what to do with these monopolies, you know, they got so big, so fast, and we need to find a way to rein them in. And government really only has so many, you know, options there. And so they start kind of with the blunt force trying to go in and regulate. So we're watching it closely. We are on the hill and talking to lawmakers on both sides saying, Hey, we're here, when you want to try to crack down on you know, these abuses and pornography show us as an example of how we are tackling that, you know, when when you want to discuss censorship show us as an alternative, and maybe that doesn't take regulation maybe that takes highlighting competition.
Sylvie Legere 23:23
Yeah, yeah. Well, there's also maybe a different way of kind of the internet 3.0 of just thinking about users, right? I feel like it, we might reach a point where I want to consider to have a internet passport, where if you have if you identify who you are, and the content that you are putting there, you are not subject to being edited out or censored. But if you are anonymous, then you are subject to being editing out right. Maybe that could be an answer to being able to control because there is so much troll that there's so much propaganda and troll and you don't even know like what's what's real, who's real and who's not and are in people's lives and careers have been ruined by trolls, just completely taking over on on social media, and they're not even real people. So I feel like they're, they're calm. And I mean, there's a huge opportunity there. I mean, to be able to own a phone, you need to, you know, show that you are a real person, a real place, right.
Kristin Jackson 24:28
So I mean, it's the babies, right? So in Facebook, if you run out in social political ads, there are multiple steps to try to prove that you're right person and Twitter. You know, Elon Musk has started to think through charging people to go through a process to be proven that you are a real person so you get special privileges and Twitter right. So what does that look like? Facebook has a vision that someday, Silvia is going to have her her own page and free spoke, your name is at the top and you can surface your content. You can show these podcasts in the show notes and what you're reading You know what you're interested in. But we need you, we need to know that you're that real person, and then you take responsibility for that. So how do we do it? And I do think that's why No, and then you, hopefully you can monetize that page. And then you get some benefit of the ads that might show up on your page. But you have to be a real person with a bank account in order to, you know, be a part of that. So, yeah, because a lot of bring that up, just web 3.0 is interesting, because a lot of it is a shared economy, right? Like, instead of Google making all the money from you putting content there, maybe, maybe the content creators should be making some of that money, right. So once you start getting into that, and web three point up, then then you do have to prove you're a real person, you have to take ownership for what you're saying.
Sylvie Legere 25:44
Yeah, well, it will be what would that I mean, let's shift a little bit. In conclusion, let's talk a little bit about the election. And what would the outcome of the election mean, you know, the house, the majority of the House and the majority of the Senate are at stake right now. And so tell us a little bit, you know, based on your experience, what does, what does it mean to have a shift the Republican take control of the house?
Kristin Jackson 26:09
Yeah, it's a it's such an interesting question. And I have so many thoughts. So I'll let you maybe cut me off and guide me because I can, I can go along here. But I, you know, as we think about the impact of this election, and I didn't want to just step back really quickly and hit governor's just because governors are so powerful. And we see it with this abortion, going from a federal protected right down to the states. And that's just one area where you know, governors are have a lot of influence in your state. So So look, local, vote local, look away, your governors are doing down the chain there, because that's where there's a ton of impact on your education system, etc. So that's an easy one. There's a lot of interesting governor's races to watch Lee Zeldin in New York is starting to challenge the incumbent, Catholic local. And so that's just it's gonna be really interesting.
Sylvie Legere 26:55
Well, education is a big is really at stake, especially with the National Education Progress scorecard that the nation scorecard that recently came out and the levels of literacy. And there's there's a lot to be done, I think, in all of the states to improve education, which is really the basis for everything for upward mobility, for innovation, for entrepreneurship, and the future of the country. And, and that is the responsibility of the states. And something needs to be done, in my opinion, there.
Kristin Jackson 27:31
There's so much room for you, the listener to have an impact there. So I'll come around to that, and some of my thoughts, but it's such a good point and such a point, you know, to hit on at the top, that So your question was the house. So you know, there's a lot up for grabs in this election, it's pretty confident that the Republicans are going to take the House of Representatives is more of a question by how much. So what happens when Republicans take power of the house take back control. I, you know, on the positives, I guess, on not necessarily political, but I have kind of a positive and negative of government. So on the positive side of government, you are going to see some change, you're going to see that that party that just took power is going to set the legislative agenda, they're going to decide what bills are being discussed, what hearings are happening on those bills, you know, how those bills are crafted, that they get for time they get debated. And, you know, that really does kind of shape, the narrative and media coverage, they'll they'll be having hearings. And when you're in control, you get two witnesses to the minority gets one witness, right. So you have more control over the discussion in those hearings. So so you'll you'll experience that. There's a couple of cultural things that I think are really interesting, the highlight, proxy voting went in during the COVID pandemic. And that means an elected official can hand off that right to vote for themselves off to somebody else. And that is a huge question in democracy. But what is really questionable, is today, long after there is a national pandemic, proxy voting is still happening. And so I feel pretty confident that Republicans taking power, like they're, they're ready to put a stop to that, because that is not how our forefathers expected our government to be run. So you know, that's a cultural shift. And then right now, the Capitol is really closed off to the people to the constituents, it's hard to get in, if you're there for a meeting, you have to wait outside until somebody comes and retrieves you, and you have to be escorted in the capitol tours of ground not to a halt. But they're really hard to get because it's very few are available. And this is the People's House in January 6 was the reason why that really got you know, shut down. But that's a cultural shift where when the Republicans take over the house that's going to open back up, there's, you know, there's going to be more opportunity for you to go, you know, take in that historical reality of your government. So there are some things that will change. The other thing quickly is the Senate so the Senate right now is 50 5050. Republicans 50 Democrats, there's you know, Kamala Harris is the VP has that tiebreaker vote so kind of leans to Democrats, there's a chance that Republicans could up in that and, you know, take back the Senate anybody's guess right now. So if you see the Senate kind of go to the right, then you see even more of an impact really just in the narrative and what's been discussed. But I will say, it's a pretty broken system. So just having the House of Representatives, if you don't have the Senate and the presidency, those are just talking points, that legislation has nowhere to go, you can pass it through the house, but if you can't get it passed in the Senate, in the President doesn't sign it. It is nothing but a talking point. And so I think that's just really important for people to know, like, we can get all spun up over what they're talking about. But it's literally just a talking point, they can't get legislation passed in this environment.
Sylvie Legere 30:50
What about some of the, or providing more oversight on the agencies? You know, for example, those federal agencies and Congress in the states are pushing for greater risk directions on self employment, for instance, and lawmakers and regulators seek to reclassify like 10 Millions of independent contractors as employees, even if they prefer their status. And there was a house passed bill that says, like protecting the right to organize the ProAct. And there's different initiatives from the Department of Labor, you know, what about and this is just an example, right, of an agency and of rules that are being made outside of Congress? And what about F? F? F, a new party has the majority, how much would they be able to rein in some of the work or the extent the overreach of some agencies?
Kristin Jackson 31:46
Sure yeah, I will say oversight is that one area, and it is the job of Congress to provide oversight of the executive branch. So that is an area where Oversight and Government Reform is a committee in that, you know, Republicans will now lead in the house, and that will all be hearings, on the Biden administration, and it will be an attempt to shine a spotlight on exactly what's been happening. You know, again, that's media narrative. That's, that's public opinion. And that gives you some room to rollback and, you know, try to change things. But if it's something that passed the House and passed the Senate and be signed by the President, that's where you get stuck. But if its oversight and attention, and you know, maybe blocking some funding from making it through, that is definitely you'll, you'll see that impact,
Sylvie Legere 32:33
right, because the house really controls the string, Congress controls the strings of the purse, right. So there would be some reining in of some of the spending, kind of
Kristin Jackson 32:45
Congress isn't working together. And I would just make one plea on this topic. There's a really great podcast, and I think we can include it in the show notes. And it's Senator Manchin from West Virginia and Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska. And they are bipartisan senators who work together, and they say in this very short podcast, it's broken. Congress isn't working the way it was supposed to work. And, you know, one of these senators came from the legislature, and he was saying, you know, this is how it worked. You worked through the process, and you pass legislation and you worked on behalf of your constituents. And Senator Murkowski said ice I knew in DC when it worked that way, but it requires some compromise. So what I the plea that I would make to your listeners is, your voices are being heard this election in 2022, is shaped around what the collective populace is saying is important. The people are saying it's the economy is crime. And that is what is driving this election, the red wave in 2022. So think about the power of your voice. And think about the people you're putting. You're electing to go work on your behalf. And think about the charge that you're giving them, if you're charging them to just tackle when you're in the majority and block when you're in the minority. And that ball just sits on the 50 yard line and doesn't get anywhere, then you don't get anything out of that. But if you say I'm electing you and I understand you may have to compromise sometimes in order to get something done and I won't unelect you because you decided to listen and compromise, then I think we may open Congress back up to actually accomplish something.
Sylvie Legere 34:27
Well, that's a that's a really tall order, I think for politicians but at the same time, but I think can you drive home the point that we all need to engage with our representative. And and I think that's where, you know, this podcast and also the various organization but like the policy circle is all about, you know, having the briefs having the information so we can ask questions, and we can voice our opinion to to our elected officials and interact and be engaged as a citizen. So Thank you, Kristen, thank you so much. So tell us, you know, tell us again, how we could be prepared for the election to go to the voting booth. This week, if you do early voting, or if you wait, I'm going to wait until election day to actually go vote on Election Day, kind of anti. These are really voting if you don't have to. And so what, tell us again, what we could do.
Kristin Jackson 35:25
So check out www.freespoke.com, download the app, you can see the elections portal there, you can be prepared, you'll know what your ballot is going to say. You can look up about your candidates, you can vote and then you can sit and be so excited as the polls start to close around six 7pm Your time and start to see the impact of your voice and the impact on the nation.
Sylvie Legere 35:45
Yeah, that will be great. Well, thank you. Thank you, Kristin. I look forward to speaking again. Thank you.
Kristin Jackson 35:51
Thanks, Sylvie. Great to be here.
Sylvie Legere 35:57
Thank you for joining me Sylvie Legere on my trust your voice podcast. I hope that this episode brought you a new way to think about your voice, how to trust yourself and how to use your voice for good in your life and in your community. If you like this podcast, be sure to leave us a review in Apple podcasts. And subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player again.