Why Moms Are Done With Politics as Usual

Welcome to the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We're your hosts, Erika Radis and Marie Lifschultz, a realtor and lender here in San Antonio. But most importantly, we're working moms just like you.

This podcast is all about creating a space where we can come together, share stories, and learn from each other. We love connecting with local moms in business hearing about their journeys and how they're balancing it all. Because let's be honest, it's not always easy, but it's so worth it.

Before we dive in today's episode, we're excited to share some big news with you all.

Our business community and coworking memberships are officially open. Whether you're looking for a supportive community of moms in business or need a beautiful space to work and grow, we've got just what you need here at Working Moms of San Antonio. You can visit the link in our show notes or workingmomsofsanantonio.com/membership for more info.

Now on to today's episode. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and let's get started.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We have a guest on, Veronica Williams, and I'm gonna turn it over to her, um, to share about all the things that you're working on and what you've got going on.

Thank you so much, Erika. Yeah, it is my pleasure to be here. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to hang out with you guys and with Maria.

Yes, Maria. Excited to have you.

Thank you so much.

Uh-huh.

So I'm Veronica Williams and I am an independent running for Congress, Texas District 23. And what I constantly tell people is that enough is enough with the division. Yeah. Enough is enough with the corruption.

Yeah.

Enough is enough with the economy that leaves too many families behind.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's so true.

Erika, yeah, Fern, have you always been considered an independent? Have you always felt that way?

You know, just like many people, I've been caught up in my own life, right?

Yeah.

Raising children. I'm also a grandmother. I own my own private practice. And so I was not always in tuned with politics, but the more that my own clients in therapy wanted to talk about politics and how scared and how concerned they were with the way that our country was going, I started to focus a little bit more on politics. So then naturally, it was natural for me to become an independent because first and foremost, all my background is in psychology.

Yeah.

And I know the way group psychology works. You know, even when there's not a healthy candidate, the party will push everyone to be quiet, fall in line, we're all gonna support this person.

Yeah.

And you know, as an independent, I implement my critical thinking skills and I really look at the candidate. Yeah. Is this a good candidate to lead us?

Mm-hmm.

And so that's what really mostly led me to become an independent.

It's hard because you, I mean, I think growing up it wasn't a big deal in my household Yeah. And then as I've gotten older, it's very much pushed onto social media, right? It's hard to get away from.

I—

we used to get our news and information just from the news, right? You watch TV, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock news, um, sometimes in the morning. But beyond that, it wasn't always in front of us. And now you can't really get away from it, like it's everywhere. So you see the younger generation really in tune to what's going on, and I think that's been an issue with mental health going, like, with, you know, they're stressed, they're stressed out. We're all stressed out a little bit.

Oh yes, you know, there's a lot of anxiety. Absolutely, absolutely worried.

And I don't— and sometimes like, well, was it always like this and we didn't know? We just didn't have the information.

I don't feel like my— like, politics is big with my parents, but I don't feel like it was big until they got older. Like, they didn't talk about that stuff when we were younger that I could recall. Um, but as they get older, they get so very opinionated.

Oh, Mr. Wayne.

Yeah, so opinionated. All the opinions.

And now everyone has an opinion, and we see this on social media.

Yes, ma'am. You know, so now we're surrounded by it, which I, I think it's good to hear, but I, I don't think no one listens to each other. So I, I don't know if I've ever identified as an independent, but I always wanted to. Like, I need to hear both. How can you have the full picture if you don't listen to both sides? But I'm like, isn't there another side? Like, wait, there's something missing. Yeah, yeah, there's a part that's missing, and I don't know what it is.

Yeah.

So share a little bit more about what it means to be an independent.

Well, an independent also, you know, it says what Marie was talking about. Listen, we have to have politicians that actually listen to both sides and say, hey, I don't identify as a Republican, but I really love that one of the core messages about the Republican Party is having a budget and sticking to that budget.

Yes.

Because let's face it, you know, we all know that the United States is in severe debt. So why are we sending billions or millions to Argentina, to Israel, to Egypt, and to other countries? That money needs to stay right here at home, you know? And so part of my training as a mental health professional is that I listen.

Yeah, I like that part.

Yes, so I listen. So I've been really enjoying block walking, and I know maybe to other politicians they're like, cringe, I hate block walking. But I've been really enjoying it because I've been doing mostly listening and hearing what we the people need.

Yeah.

And we the people are telling me that they're tired of the division.

Yeah.

They're tired of the corruption because they feel like, you know, both parties really represent billionaires and big corporations and big money.

No matter what side. Like, that's right. Yes, on both sides.

That's right. And so they want to bring it back. They want to support politicians that bring it back to We the People.

Yeah.

And so if that's what you're looking for, then I'm your candidate.

Wow.

It is. It's hard. We actually had this conversation with my boys not too long ago there, and they're very involved. Like, they love listening to stuff, and I'm like, okay, I need to back off. Like, come, come back. But I love that they want to know. But I, I truly stressed, and I didn't know how to until you actually just said it, you need to hear both sides. But there's also, like I said, a piece that was missing. Like, there's— I, I love the conservative part of a Republican where we need to have a budget. Money, money, numbers matter. Yes. Like we gotta make that matter. But I love the heart of the Democrat where we got, I wanna take care of people.

Oh yeah.

You know, I want, I want that part. So we have to figure out how to make those two ideas in my world fit together. Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to like, one's not, one's, none of them are great. They're none, none of them are great. Right. So you gotta find a solution.

Absolutely. You know, no one is gonna be perfect. Not a party, not a system, not an individual. We're human and we're made to error. So the way I see it is that we need a politician that will apply empathy and understanding for we the people, but strength and assertiveness towards people that wanna destroy our democracy.

Yes.

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, I think it's an interesting point that was made before where it's like, you know, they will push up, these parties will push up whomever. I mean, I know, and, and I'm not a very political person, but I know like during our last presidential election, I sort of thought to myself like, Is this the best of what we have? Like, this is what we, this is what we're doing.

Like, I'm smarter than that.

It feels like there are other choices.

Like, remember I'm like, I'm smarter than that. Wait a minute.

Hold on. Yeah. But it was just like, hey, that's who, like, that's who that party had and that's who they had and that was what it was.

Let's go.

That's true. Yes. And I was like, that's interesting. Like, this is the best, I guess.

But I think as we, the, we, the, the common person feel like, do we have any really power? I mean, we're not billionaires. We don't have the voice, but yeah. I mean, we had another candidate that was running for local, local government, and she's like, it's more important to truly vote local, right? Because that affects your daily life more. But at the end of the day, like, do we have— if we can get voices up there that can see all the sides. Yeah, maybe there's not just two sides, maybe there's five sides, I don't know, whatever the sides are. See all the things and have some critical thinking skills. Yeah, that would be great.

Let's work on that just as a society.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I like what you touched on, Marie, that, you know, we look at each other or we think to ourselves, do I have what it takes to run? You know, and we actually do. You know, in private practice, within my sessions with clients, after teaching my clients skills, I would empower them, I would encourage them, apply these skills and jump into action if you wanna create positive change in your life. You know, so this is me as a mental health professional jumping into action. Jumping in. To create positive change, not only locally, but, you know, because of my skills, I'm able to zoom out. So not only am I thinking about my constituents within District 23, but I'm zooming out and everything that I do for my constituents, I will also be thinking, how can this also help all U.S. citizens?

Yeah. Well, and I'm sorry, District 23, what is that? What area is that if people don't know?

Oh my goodness, it is massive.

It's a big area, isn't it? It's a big area.

It is massive. It goes into El Paso, it comes down to the border del Rio, Eagle Pass, and then it creeps up into San Antonio and, um, Laredo.

Yes, gotcha. It's a very large district. I knew that.

Like, yes.

Yeah.

And how many people are in the running?

Currently on the Republican side, I believe there's 4 candidates to include the incumbent. Mm-hmm. And on the Democratic side, there's about 5 people.

Okay.

So yeah, so I have to wait. So the process for an independent is that I need to collect 500 signatures.

Oh, okay.

Which to me is doable. You know, it might seem overwhelming to other people, but to me it's very doable. And I have to wait until after the primaries are over because then those people that will sign my petition, those 500 signatures cannot vote in the primaries because essentially what we're doing is when people vote in the primaries, they're saying, I want this Democrat to represent me or I want this Republican to represent me. Represent me. But when people decide to sign my petition, they're saying, I want Veronica to represent me.

Oh, I see.

That's so interesting.

And so by signing that, they are not vote, like they're saying we are not voting for these other people.

Correct. Yeah.

They're, they're just saying we're not gonna vote in the primaries.

I see.

That's it. But then let's say that they changed their mind about whoever voted for their Democrat or their Republican, because then they got to talk to me and they were like, wow, Veronica, she just didn't talk about herself. She actually listened. Mm-hmm. You know, so then in the general election, even though they voted in the primaries, they can still say, actually, I think Veronica's a better candidate, so I'm just gonna go ahead and vote for her.

Oh, that's an interesting process.

Mm-hmm.

It is.

Yeah.

Who knew?

I, I think it's just the, the fact that we have more and more people like, hey, we need to have a third option. Like, yeah, the two options are just not cutting it. And I, there's, Like I said, there's more sides to all the things, and we focus on two things. What happened to the rest of all the other stuff that we care about?

Yeah, you know, absolutely. And with that in mind, the Associated Press, just yesterday, they came out with an article stating that the younger generations, the millennials, the Gen Z, that they are not loyal to the Democrats or the Republicans because they felt— they feel left behind. They feel like they're not— their issues, their interests, their concerns are not really being addressed. So they're leaning more into independence.

Well, I want to say they, they and us got screwed in the end. I could feel that way. We feel very left out. We feel very forgotten. All the things we're doing, all the changes that were made in the past have— and they said, I mean, if you read and, and look back, it's going to affect younger generations. And it is. And we're seeing that now. The, the economy, all the changes in, in our, in our industry, the, the market.

Sure, right.

You can't buy a home. Like, homes are not affordable. Why? What, what happened?

What is the average age now of the first-time home buyer? 38, almost 38.

I bought my first home. I'm very blessed, and I'm in the industry. I don't think I would have, but I bought my first home at 23 years old. And I'm looking at my son and I'm like, you can't even get an apartment. Like, he's going to graduate and he, he kind of— no, no. Yeah, you know.

Yeah, that's why we're seeing younger generations, they're staying with their parents a lot longer. Because, you know, just homes are, they're unaffordable. Rents are super high. Groceries are expensive. Car insurance, all those things that matter, you know, that once gave older generations like myself, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, you know, we were able to purchase homes very affordable. When I purchased my first home, I only paid $123,000.

Yeah.

That now, it's unheard of.

Yeah, no, you— it's not livable. The homes are not livable. They're not health— there's health and safety issues. And yeah, it's, it's crazy. So the things that I think millennials, um, and, and Gen Z are really focused on finding— like, this can't be the only way to do things. And we've been doing the two parties for so long. Yes. And you— I don't think most people realize there is other options.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know I'm really hoping and crossing my fingers that we actually get a third party, you know, and let's give a third party a chance of what they can bring to the table, you know, because I think you're going to see a lot of other people like myself stepping up to the plate and saying, this is an option here. I'm here to listen, you know, not just brag about myself and I've done this and I've done that.

Yeah.

You know, which all the other parties have forgotten what it is to be us. Like, they don't, they don't know what what the day-to-day struggles are, and they live in la-la land is what I think. Yeah.

How interesting. Yeah. So is affordable housing like one of your points, like on your platform?

Oh yes. You know, um, I was— when I was doing my research as I'm running for this political position, I found out that private equity firms— and just one example, Blackstone— they've been purchasing a lot of single-family units.

Yes, right.

And then they're not turning around. It's not like they're fixing them and then selling them to, you know, young homeowners, you know, they're actually renting them out and their goal is not to sell them, it's to rent them, you know. I'm sure you guys have recently heard about the 50-year mortgage. Yeah, you know, I mean, that to me, even though I'm a homeowner, I'm worried for our future generations because I have children that are millennials and grandchildren that are Gen Z, you know, so what is there for them to purchase?

Yeah.

You know, so that's who I'm concerned about.

Fair. And I, since I am in finance, you know, well, I'll talk about that with the 50-year mortgage seems crazy. Doesn't have to be fully 50 years. It does give people some options and you have choices. It gives them another choice. But again, you need to have people who are out there looking on, out on, behalf of people and teaching them and advising them. What does this mean? Because I don't think most people understand what 50 years means. Like, what does that look like in terms of how much you're actually paying? Are you really saving? And if— and give the numbers to them and make— allow them to have that choice. Yeah, but why do we have to go to a 50-year if things are affordable? It's not the interest rates right now. It's not, it's not, you know, the, the things. It's all the regulations that are put on that industry right now that's causing the expense, but it's truly the home cost and what drives that. Yeah. So home costs go up, your income has to go up. We have not caught up. Like, if I remember seeing something from the 1930s, '40s, whatever it was, what prices were and what you made, there was a decent ratio, right? So we've increased so much that we, we're, we're suffering here. We can't afford anything because of the gap of income versus what things cost.

Absolutely. Yeah.

You just can't catch up.

I mean, for me on being on the sales side of it, and I can't speak to other parts of the country.

Yeah.

But I know that like during COVID there was such a huge like influx of cash. I'd never seen more cash in the market.

Where'd the cash come from?

It came from California and it came from New York where you sell a house that's $5 million and you can buy one over here for $750,000, you know, and it's a similar house. And I just remember, I mean, even I had some of these clients where We were in these bidding wars and stuff and they were like, just give 'em another 50. They have it. And like, I know, just give 'em another 50. Give 'em 50 more than what they're asking.

Yeah. Okay.

You know, I guess I can't tell you not to. Um, but it drove up the price of these houses and our income for the people that are from here and living here, um, has not gone up to meet that.

We can't, we can't catch up.

Yeah.

But you have these large corporations that are in, cahoots with all the different parties and somehow—

exactly—

and have allowed them to do things like that. And you, you just don't have a fighting chance. It's kind of like, that's why we— monopolies are bad. You can't have one thing control everything because then you have no competition there. So that's what we've seen. And both parties have not done what's right for the common person, like just us, right?

Yeah, it hasn't been addressed, you know. And this is why I'm pro-raising salaries and wages. You know, I'm pro-universal healthcare. And some people say, well, we can't afford universal healthcare. And I say, I call BS to that. You know, and we can afford universal healthcare if we stop policing the world, if we start sending our American tax dollars overseas.

Absolutely.

If we stop bombing. One bomb costs thousands of dollars, you know? And if we keep that money here at home, we can afford universal healthcare. To include mental health, You know, to include pharmaceuticals, to include seeing a dentist, because too many times it seems like it's a luxury just to go to the dentist.

I know, it's wild. And I mean, you see, I guess there's truth in that because you see these other countries that kind of stay out of everybody's business and they can afford to take care of their own thing.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

I suppose their taxes must be high. I mean, it must be high.

I don't know. I'm sure we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

I'm like, I don't really know.

But I think there's other things involved that are causing the huge there's a huge gap in where we fall versus where our parties fall financially. Excellent. You know, like there's just huge— and in corporations, like, I, I don't mind, believe me. I, I love— I work hard, make money. Yes, all the day. I want you to— if you— the harder you work, the more money you work— I, I— more money you earn. Excuse me. I think that's all day long. I love that. I love that ability. I like— that's why I do what I do.

Sure.

The harder I work, the more money I can make. If I don't want to work, I don't have— I don't make money. Yeah, it works. But there has to be some kind of fair game. It's not a fair game because we can't catch up.

That's right. And I like the way you put it, Marie. You know, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We don't have to. You know, we can look at how other countries do it. We can look at Europe and see how they implement universal healthcare. You know, we can look at our neighbors to the north, Canada, and see how they have done it. You know, even our neighbors to the south, Mexico, they have universal healthcare, you know, and like you said, Marie, we don't have to reinvent the wheel, you know, we can look at those systems and then say, okay, I see how you guys are doing it, but us Americans, we like to do it better.

Yeah.

So why not look at, you know, where it's failing or where it's not so good and just do it better?

Yeah. It's hard. I mean, I was watching, I don't know if this is watching something on social media, and it was, it was a person calling on regarding a bill they received. And they called and said, hey, we got this bill for whatever procedure we had, and I don't think you included our, our insurance, right? Our health insurance. Let me give you that information. Great, got that health insurance information. They got another bill a month later, the bill's higher. Like, um, wait a minute, um, we— you— I, I gave you my health insurance and now this bill's even more. Oh yeah, well, you don't, you don't get the discount because you were a cash buyer. Before and you got a discount, but now you— now that you're using insurance, you have to pay more. What? Yeah, I was like, how does that work?

It doesn't.

Like, how do— there's— so there's some— there's a piece missing that a lot of us— I don't have the, the knowledge or the expertise to really— but I know there's something missing. Yeah, right. There's something that doesn't make any sense where if you're a cash buyer, you get a discount, or it doesn't cost as much, but if you use insurance then it's more. That shouldn't be the case.

Maybe because they feel like they can get more out of the insurance company, like they, they, the bill. I mean, that's the only thing I can think of. They think they're going to get more out of them, so your bill goes up. But then as your bill goes up, your responsible party goes up.

Well, there's also regulation.

I mean, that's not right, but I think that's maybe the train of thought.

Like in my industry, right? So when, when things changed in the industry and Fannie and Freddie became now, you know, government property basically and stuff like that, all these regulations came in. Well, in order to implement those regulations it costs more money to do loans, period. So the banks are gonna eat it. Yeah, I can't eat it. So guess where it gets passed on to? It goes on to the consumer. Well, it's cheaper if you pay cash long term because you don't have all the, the issues, right? So same thing here. If you have insurance that's involved with healthcare and you have all these— I'm assuming regulations, things they have, the billing, all the things you add on when you have insurance now have added to the cost of that procedure.

Yeah.

So how do we fix that so then everybody can have affordable healthcare? Like, that should be just a human thing. Like, that's just— we should be able to take care of that. That should be simple.

Yes.

And we can figure it out.

As human beings, we're going to get sick. We're going to need to go see a dentist, right? So this is why I'm so much pro-universal healthcare. But let's take a look at the current system that we have, you know. And the reason, the reason why a lot of these health insurance companies make millions and billions is because it's very common to hear that they do not provide the services that they say they're gonna provide, right? Denials, experiencing denials as patients, as consumers of these insurance companies, we get a lot of denials. But the unique thing that a lot of people don't know is that on the other end, as a provider, because as a mental health professional, I used to be on these insurance panels and sometimes they would not pay us.

Oh, oh yeah.

As professionals, as providers, because oftentimes I had to constantly fight with insurance companies even months after I had already provided mental health services to my clients. They would say, "No, we're not gonna pay you," and I would have to resubmit. And sometimes it would take me weeks, if not months, to get paid. And sometimes, I wasn't paid at all.

Yeah, I believe that.

We have—

my husband is a veteran and we have VA insurance. Um, and there are so many— in a town where there are so many military, there are so many people that will not take my insurance because they know they're going to get stiffed. And I mean, believe me, I get it. The VA does what it does. Like, I understand. Um, and so I don't blame them, but it is a pain, you know? So I believe that. I believe that as— that these professionals probably are being paid. Or aren't being paid what they're supposed to be paid.

Because of the hassle they have to deal with in order to even try to get paid.

Oh yeah.

Then it's going to cost you more, right? Yeah. You're more of a pain in the ass. You're going to be a coffee mark expense.

Yeah, totally.

And I think that's what insurance companies are also hoping, that us providers get so burnt out and so frustrated that we say goodbye to the insurance companies because that honestly happened to me.

Yeah.

You know, I'm here to be completely transparent and what burned me out in private practice was not helping clients, right? What burned me out was dealing with insurance companies. So I said goodbye to all of them and now I'm completely private pay, you know? And you know, while I have this microphone, I wanna bring attention to Dr. Elizabeth Potter. I don't know if you guys have heard about her story online, but she's a surgeon and I'm not gonna name the insurance company 'cause I just wanna be respectful, right? But she was actually pulled out of surgery. An insurance company called her to talk to her about a patient, which, mind you, they had already approved the procedure. She was already scrubbed in and about to conduct her expertise, the surgery, and she had to scrub out to take that phone call from the insurance company.

That's right. They were changing the approval or what were they?

They wanted to discuss, well, does this patient really need this surgery? And mind you, this patient was experiencing cancer. So yeah, so yeah, she needs this.

How crazy. That's wild.

Absolutely.

Right now we don't have a party that will stand up to whatever's happening. I, I don't know, something's happening. I don't know what it is, but something's happening between the government insurance and stuff like that. So if we have no one saying, hey, we gotta fix this problem.

Yeah, you know, and I think because too many politicians are taking, uh, big corporate funds, you know? So at the end of the day, they ask us, the common people, "Vote for me, vote for me." But then when they're up in DC, you know, "How are you helping me, sir or ma'am?" You know? And I need you to advocate for me and not advocate for these corporations. And as a mental health professional, that's another piece that I've been trained. I have to advocate for my clients, and that's the skills that I'm gonna take to Washington. I'm gonna advocate for US citizens.

My husband always says, he said, I think politicians should stand up with jackets that are covered in like, labeled like a NASCAR driver. So you can know like, okay, that's UnitedHealthcare, that's Aetna, or whatever.

Yeah, that's funny.

No, I agree.

This is so, I mean, and if that's where you got funds and that's who you support, great. But let us all know that. So then we can have that information upfront so we kind of know.

Yes, I love it. Transparency. And this is why other websites like TrackAPAC, and there's another one, Open Secrets, you know, we can look into those and see who is supporting these politicians, who have they taken funds from, you know? And I think a lot of people are gonna be pleasantly surprised that when they're looking at my website under the donation tab, they can see clearly I do not accept corporation money and I do not accept APAC money. My campaign is 100% fully funded by We the People because That's who I will represent today and tomorrow and always.

Well, it's just— and it's, it shows that you have a passion to care. I mean, it's a servant's heart, like you want to serve the people, and that's what everyone in politics should be like. And I think we've forgotten that. Absolutely. In general. And, and I feel bad for our generation, our, our kids' generation that's coming up, because I'm like, they don't have any hope. I mean, I, I want hope, but it's hard. Like I said, with all the information that's out right now, it's just We gotta have a different option out there.

Absolutely. And that's what I'm hearing about from the young people. I'm constantly on TikTok 'cause that's like a popular app and I conduct lives there. Yeah. And so I got a lot of people that say, especially Gen Z, you know, that they feel anxiety, that they feel fear because like we spoke about earlier, the option, the opportunity to purchase a home is not there for them. You know, to have livable wages and salary is not there for them. To be able to afford going to college It's not there for them. Even trade schools, trade schools are expensive nowadays.

Yeah.

You know, so they're like, what's the purpose of life? And that just totally hurts my heart. Yeah. You know, as an American, it hurts my heart. As a mental health professional, I'm like, look, we need more politicians that are really addressing these issues, right? That jump in and say, I'm gonna work hard for you. I'm gonna work hard to say these, Private equity firms can no longer buy these homes, so we make them more affordable for you. We need politicians to say, hey, we're gonna encourage more home building, right? Because if we increase the amount of homes that there is, that also—

More supply and demand.

Exactly. So that will bring down the prices of homes. You know, regulation is not a bad thing.

Yeah.

You know, as a mental health professional, I know that people can get addicted to money and power. So we need more politicians that are gonna put boundaries towards themselves, you know, and I'm that type of person. No one else knows how to place boundaries better than I do, right? So I've already told my people when I'm block walking, I'm gonna implement a self-boundary in regards to term limits. You're not gonna see me die in office. That's so embarrassing, right? First and foremost. So if my voters allow it, I will love to serve 3 terms and the terms are 2 years apiece. So no more than 6 years. And after that, I'm gonna say goodbye.. But from day one, I want to implement a mentorship program so that I'm helping young people. Hey, these are the ins and outs of politics. So at the end, I can say I've been mentoring this—

Pass the baton.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Beautifully said. I'm going to pass the baton to this person. This is who I endorse, right? And did you guys know that politicians in DC get the ultimate insider trading knowledge and then they take that knowledge to the stock market. So if they don't walk in as millionaires, they leave as millionaires.

Yeah.

But once again—

Does that happen? I don't know. It's crazy.

They're the only people that don't have to go to work and still get paid. You see those rooms when they're voting and they're fucking empty. I'm like, in what other job do you just not have to turn up and you're still getting paid?

Yeah. None.

Absolutely.

You know, but once again, I'm gonna implement a boundary and I pledge not to use that insider trading information and I'm not going to place bets or invest in the stock market.

You know, they should be allowed to. No, I think the, the biggest thing when it comes to— there's no new blood, right? There's no new ideas. Not, not— let's say they've done great, great, but you get stuck, right? You get stuck in the same ideas. And if new blood doesn't get in, you like it when you have a business, you bring in someone from the outside who might have experienced something different or had a different company policy or whatever. You bring them into your company like, hey, that's a great idea, let's implement that here. We don't have any new ideas coming into our government at all. It's the same thing over and over and over, like it's the same book. Like, we got to get new ideas in here.

Yes, wash, rinse, and repeat.

Yeah, new blood.

Absolutely.

But definitely, it is never a bad thing having new ideas come in. It might work, it might not, but we haven't tried anything new.

Absolutely.

Try something new.

Yeah, you know, and I think that's where I come in, where I can come in, because like I said, I don't plan to die in office. You know, we see too many politicians, for example, you know, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, you know, 40 years.

It's a long time.

That is a long time. You know, Mitch McConnell.

Long time.

Yeah. Maybe 30 years or something like that, you know? Yeah. So I don't wanna pick on a certain party, right? Because both of them have politicians that have served a lifetime.

Yeah.

And we need to create space for other ideas.

New ideas, that's all.

Absolutely.

Like, I thank you for your service, but let's have some new ideas that have, and that might've been part of the, I would say in quotes, normal world. When you've been in politics for 30, 40 years, you haven't experienced the day-to-day life that we're experiencing today. You've been so far removed from it because you've been so long serving. So I have some new people who've had a family recently, who have grandchildren, who have like in the real world, and have come up and actually can share ideas that they, hey, like this is what we're seeing today. You're, you're remembering things that were 50 years ago, 40 years ago, right?

Yeah, right. You know, so the old way of doing things is not necessarily healthy for the new generations. You know, I've had some interesting conversations with new candidates, right? And so Veronica, what are you doing to communicate your message? I'm like grassroots, 100%. I'm block walking. You know, very quickly when I put my name in the hat, I started block walking. And one candidate in particular, I'm not gonna name him, but he said, you know what? That's kind of old-fashioned, isn't it? I'm like, what are you talking about old-fashioned? He's like, yeah, we can just pay for people to go knock on doors. And I was like, but you're missing the point. Yeah. You know, we have to build relationships. I'm not trying to talk to people, I'm trying to listen. But in my goal of implementing healthy boundaries, I'm also creating healthy relationships with my constituents because all of those people are gonna be my accountability partners. So we need to stay grounded, and the only way we do that is by having conversations and listening to we the people.

Well, and if you're not listening to your people, who are you listening to? Yeah, you're just yourself. Like, yeah, like, where's the— where are the ideas?

Where—

how do you know what we need or want if you don't listen and you're disconnected? Yeah, and that's the biggest thing I think maybe I feel when I look at politics, and I try not to, but when I try to see, they're— it's very disconnected from how I see the world. Yeah, like when you listen to them, like, no, that's kind of weird. Nope, I don't get to not go to work. You know, even when I'm sick, I still get up and go to work. We don't have vacation days like you. We don't have months off at a time. We still got to show up. If not, I don't get paid. If I don't get paid, my kids don't eat. That's right. So true.

And I agree 100% with that, you know. Um, if and when I get elected, you know, and young people say speak it into existence, so this is me. Yeah, that's right. So this is me speaking it out to existence, right? So when I get elected, I'm going to try to implement term boundaries, term limits, right? And also, if we don't show up to work, we don't get paid. Now, I know I'm not naive. I know I'm going to get pushback, but I'm 100% pro if we don't show up to work, we don't get paid.

That's just crazy.

How? Yeah, you're right. In what other world does that happen?

It just doesn't. It never does. And I just like, you know, you watch the news and stuff and you see these rooms and there's like 4 people in there.

That's it.

And I'm like, what?

Yes, absolutely. And just like you ladies, you know, Marie, you were saying, if I don't hustle, I don't get money. I make very little, or, you know, yes, my family doesn't eat. So likewise for politicians, you know, with the current shutdown, wow, they, all of them got paid.

They should be on commission like us. Oh God, I'm 100% commission.

They couldn't do it.

They couldn't handle it. It's not a salary we had. If we don't work, you don't get paid. Like, that's just how it works, you know. You shouldn't— no salary. You should be 100% commission.

Absolutely. You know what, I'm for it. Let's do it, you know, because your girl here is okay with eating bean and cheese tacos.

Yeah, it really is. I like— and I, I don't want to fault anyone. I think I, I pray, I pray that people go in with the heart that they're trying to help, and their ideas are just— they're outdated. Yeah, outdated. We need new blood. You need new ideas. And, and because what they— whatever they're voting for is not what we need, or whatever they're doing for us, it's not, it's not, it's not cutting it.

That's right.

You know, and, and I, I have a blessed life, but I am fearful for my children who are now becoming adults very slow. You know, they're like— I'm like, what do they have? Like, just— we were just, for example, just trying to buy a used car. Yeah, for my son.

Is it right?

And I, I, I was used to be an Advent Dave Ramsey follower, and, you know, get that beater, and he doesn't need a brand new car. Yes. I can't find one. I can't find this, you know, $1,200 car, you know, so he can have to go to school. Like, it's thousands and thousands of dollars. Like, there's— because I'm like, how do people afford this? Yeah, this should not— this is not— it's not reasonable. So when I remember when I bought my first car, I'm like, it was, you know, $1,500, you know, way back when. This is increased tenfold. Yeah, like, and but money hasn't, so it doesn't make sense. Like, why is this like this?

You know, with that, I also believe that we need to allow other industries to come into the United States, you know, other carmakers to come in. And just as an example, I'm going to talk about our neighbor to the south. You know, they have been investing in creating their own car line. You know, is it the super luxury Mercedes? Will it— is it comparable to Mercedes? Absolutely not. You know, it's a small smart car type vehicle for the common person, just for a person to have an affordable vehicle to get to work. That's it. So we should be open-minded to allow those industries to come, especially if it's our neighbors. And if so, Canada has something like this, I would be open to, hey, let's bring these other vehicles into the market because us Americans, we need more affordable options instead of a car that costs $60,000 or, you know, we can't get an affordable used car.

Can't even get a beater.

Definitely.

It's affordable.

Absolutely.

I was looking online the other day and I was like, oh hey, there's one, $3,500. Oh wait, there's— wait, it's just a shell, there's no motor. Never mind, next one. It had no motor.

You need that.

So it's like a Flintstones car, right? You're gonna have to start running.

Batmobile.

Oh, crazy. Well, this has been very informative. Yeah. And I just— this is usually the part where we will ask our guests to share how folks can learn more about you and support you.

Thank you so much. People can go and check out my website at veronicagwilliams.com and please sign up. My email address is there, you know, send me a shout out, a question, a complaint, a concern, a suggestion, because as a mental health professional, I listen to all of it.

Yes, I love that. And on the TikToks and Instagram and all those things.

Yeah, that's great, absolutely.

Catch her live.

Yes, that's right.

And we'll get you that information in the show notes as well. So people can just click and find you right there.

Thank you.

Um, and thanks so much for being on.

Thank you for having me. We're excited about the new blood.

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.

Thank you, ladies. Of course. And then really quickly, I'll just thank our listeners for tuning into this week's episode, and we will catch you guys next time.

See you guys next time.

Bye.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We hope you love today's chat and found a little inspiration to take with you into your week. If you have a podcast topic suggestion or a question you'd love for us to cover, definitely send us an email at hello@workingmomsofsanantonio.com. We'd love to hear from you. And until next time, see you in the community.