Rock The Vote | Keeping Yourself (and Your Employees) Politically Motivated
On this episode of Commerce and Chill, Jessica and Waleed discuss their views on the importance of voting, encouraging employees to get politically engaged, and how politicians can better appeal to their constituents and potential voters. Tune in to learn more!
At the start of Commerce and Chill, Jessica and Waleed discussed a new RFP (request for proposal) that came from the city for laundry services in NYC. Included in the RFP were guidelines about encouraging your employees to vote in the upcoming presidential elections, as well as some guidelines about taxes. Waleed and Jessica had differing opinions on the appropriateness of including political messaging of any kind in unrelated businesses documents and whether there are better ways to promote political engagement among business owners, among employees, and among city residents.
Waleed expressed discontent with the city promoting political issues in unrelated business documents because it creates minutia for already-busy business owners to have to wade through, which takes their attention away from directly responding to the actual needs of their businesses and from satisfying the requirements of the requesting parties. Though it’s important that business owners vote and engage in the political process so that they may exercise their rights and make their voices heard in the political realm, there is a time for politics and there is a time for business. At certain times, inserting political considerations into business activities takes the focus away from the execution of business goals, even if just for a few moments. The urge to separate the two is not to negate the importance of voting, wherein we should each support the candidate or candidates that most align with our beliefs and visions for the future, but to emphasize the importance of balancing our politics with our business, and not to become so consumed with political engagement that we miss out on opportunities in our business. Waleed’s chief message on this point was to vote for whichever candidate or candidates best represent your interests and ensure that, as a voter, you pay attention to and support the politicians that actually live up to their promises over time.
Jessica responded to these view points by explaining her experience as a Congressional Page in high school, which set her on a path of political engagement throughout her career and adult life. As a page, Jessica worked under Congressional staffers and politicians as (essentially) an unpaid intern, but had the opportunity to sit in on meetings, meet constituents, and watch the congressional process from the sidelines, which helped her understand how the system functions and sparked a lifelong interest in politics that has continued into her business career. In the past few weeks, Jessica met with New York State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her staffers via Zoom, and also conducted a call with a staffer for Congressman Hakeem Jefferies from New York.
The first meeting, with Senator Gillibrand’s team was an opportunity for Jessica to explain her legislative goals as a small business owner running an essential business in the midst of the Covid pandemic, which included: a second round of PPP loans, unemployment support for business owners, affordable childcare for essential employees, and other issues specific to small businesses. While the meeting itself was highly productive, unfortunate news came out in the midst of the meeting that the White House intended to postpone further economic relief until after the election, which meant that many of the concerns surrounding small business would also receive postponed answers and solutions.
Later in the week, Jessica spoke to Michelle Ortega from Congressman Jefferies’s office which was a more intimate meeting about the affects of the unemployment process on small businesses, especially as cases of unemployment have skyrocketed due to and through the pandemic. For those that are unaware, business employers pay into an unemployment fund as insurance for their employees in the event that they become unemployed. At the same time, the government matches a portion of that money to create a collective safety net for workers. If a small business’s unemployment fund runs dry, businesses can take a loan from the government, but the rates that a business pays may increase as this happens. At times, businesses can get caught in a bad cycle if people abuse unemployment or if there are unforeseen spikes in unemployment as has happened due to Covid. It is worth mentioning that Unemployment is meant to be a form of temporary assistance until an employee can find their next opportunity, not a long-term source of income. In short, it is a bridge, not an interstate. The pandemic and a series of other factors have unfortunately disrupted this and many other systems in ways that can be severe for small business owners who are simply seeking to do right by their employees and their communities.
Considering each of their respective views on the political system and its impacts on the day-to-day lives and activities of business owners, Waleed and Jessica offered distinct breakdowns of how these systems impacted them personally. For Waleed, his status as an unaffiliated voter who is not tied to any one political party means that he cannot vote in primary elections and must wait until the general elections for his voice to be heard, after much of the political discourse has already been had. While being unaffiliated means that Waleed chooses to vote according to the policies and principles of each candidate individually, it unfortunately means that there is an intentional or unintentional suppression of independent voices and viewpoints.
Jessica rightfully asserts that elections have consequences, as do our choices to engage or disengage from the political process, regardless of what that engagement looks like for each person. On one hand, there are consequences to not affiliating with a party which include the inability to voice your beliefs by way of voting until later in the process. On the other hand, being unaffiliated gives a voter the ability to make decisions in a way that makes the most sense for their needs and community, without feeling tired to a party or specific platform across the board.
One of the best ways to ensure that your voice is heard and your community is represented at all, however is to make sure that you go vote and that you encourage the people in your community and workplace or business to vote and be heard as well.
As Waleed referenced towards the end of the podcast, the New York Voter Analysis Report, compiled by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, showed that New York ranked 41st out of 50 states in terms of voter turnout, and that in a 10 year period, 21% eligible registered voters did not vote at all. Even further, only 3% of eligible voters had voted on every occasion that they were eligible to vote. These stats become even more disheartening when realizing that New York sends more tax money to Washington than it receives back in federal spending than any other state by $26.6 billion dollars. This disparity may be in part due to the low voter turnout throughout the city and state, which may disincentivize accountability on the part of politicians at the federal level.
This all being said, the easiest way to ensure your political voice is considered by politicans at every level and to potentially bring more money back into our city, state, and local districts, is to make sure that you engage in the political process as early as you can , and most importantly of all: Go Vote!
For more on this topic, check out the Commerce and Chill podcast and follow Jessica Johnson-Cope and Waleed Cope at the links below.
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