Latest / All About The Joy / Empathy in an Age of Political Violence: The Murder of Charlie Kirk

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Empathy in an Age of Political Violence: The Murder of Charlie Kirk · All About The Joy

0:00
Carmen Lezeth: Hey everyone, welcome to All About the Joy, culture and Consequence Andrea's in the house.
0:04
Carmen Lezeth: I'm Carmen Lissette, your host, and we're kind of changing what we were going to talk about.
0:10
Carmen Lezeth: But we'll get to it because we kind of have to talk about what happened the murder of Charlie Kirk and Andrea.
0:17
Carmen Lezeth: I want to get your thoughts before I go off on my tangent.
0:22
Andrea Nunez: My thoughts.
0:23
Andrea Nunez: I don't want anybody to be shot to death.
0:29
Andrea Nunez: I truly don't, and I desperately wish that that wasn't something that happened in this country every single day.
0:40
Andrea Nunez: But it is and, on that note, I did a little research in preparation for what I knew we would have to talk about this morning and I looked it up and there were 48 gun deaths yesterday reported in the United States.
0:59
Andrea Nunez: This is on gunviolencearchiveorg, sourced from law enforcement government media sources.
1:06
Andrea Nunez: So 48 people died.
1:08
Andrea Nunez: You know that we know of in the United States yesterday.
1:11
Andrea Nunez: This particular person was a person who openly, publicly encouraged and advocated violence, political violence.
1:26
Andrea Nunez: This person was someone who fought against restrictions on guns that could have prevented his murder, as well as the murders of the 47 other people who died and countless others before that 47 other people who died and countless others before that.
1:51
Andrea Nunez: This person publicly stated that he felt gun deaths were worth it.
1:54
Andrea Nunez: So I will save my new age empathy and sympathy for the 47 other families who lost someone yesterday, and that's how I feel about it.
2:03
Carmen Lezeth: So this is where you and I are going to fight.
2:05
Carmen Lezeth: I well, no, no, because you know I posted a couple of TikToks and of course, I'm getting so much backlash, which is the point Cause I want the conversation to happen.
2:14
Carmen Lezeth: But I think I think what's lacking, and has been lacking for a long time, is empathy and our ability to just have some fucking dignity.
2:23
Carmen Lezeth: Like I understand what you're saying.
2:26
Carmen Lezeth: I don't have any love for Charlie Kirk.
2:28
Carmen Lezeth: I think he was a fucking asshole, but I still have the ability to be like.
2:32
Carmen Lezeth: This is wrong.
2:33
Carmen Lezeth: This is not good.
2:35
Carmen Lezeth: I feel bad for his kids.
2:37
Carmen Lezeth: I don't give a fuck about the adults in his life, because they should know better than to follow someone like him.
2:43
Carmen Lezeth: But the idea that we're okay or justifying that 47 people should have empathy and one person should not, because the whole definition of empathy is not about being able to agree or understand anybody.
2:57
Carmen Lezeth: It is to be able to say, there, but for the grace of the universe, go I for those of us who are not God crazy people anymore.
3:05
Carmen Lezeth: But I'm just saying that's empathy.
3:08
Carmen Lezeth: This is why Trump can easily put officers on the street and those officers and Trump don't give a fuck about immigrants, because they have no empathy, they don't care about humanity, empathy, they don't care about humanity.
3:28
Carmen Lezeth: And so what I'm trying to say and what seems to be getting lost is you can hold more than one, two, three thoughts as a fucking evolved human being on the planet and say Charlie Kirk was an asshole, and yet this is wrong and this is not how we do things, and I have pain and sadness for his family, for the people that did love him because he was a human being, and that doesn't negate my feeling for 47 other children.
3:54
Carmen Lezeth: Look, there's a gun problem in this country.
3:58
Carmen Lezeth: That's a whole other motherfucking conversation.
4:01
Carmen Lezeth: And, yes, everything that that man did, especially to people who were not like him, so white people I'm just going to say it because the list is long.
4:13
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying that, but that does not mean we were lacking empathy and compassion for humanity, not just with the Charlie, just in general.
4:26
Carmen Lezeth: That's why Trump is so in office and because nobody gave a fuck about what he was going Farmers, great example.
4:35
Carmen Lezeth: They're all crying now but they had no empathy or sympathy for what was going to happen to other people, so until it happened to them, they didn't give a shit.
4:44
Carmen Lezeth: And that's what I think is the bigger issue that I'm upset about right now.
4:48
Carmen Lezeth: I'm furious about it.
4:50
Carmen Lezeth: And one last thing, and then I'll let you rebut, or whatever is, all these doctors and therapists that are all over TikTok and some of them are legit, but they're all like it's okay.
5:01
Carmen Lezeth: It's okay to feel what you're feeling, it's okay, and not going down the rest of it.
5:07
Carmen Lezeth: I can feel whatever I want to feel, but to act as if that wasn't a human life is weird.
5:14
Carmen Lezeth: Or to not give a shit about the 47 other is weird to me.
5:19
Carmen Lezeth: That we are cold fucking people to humanity, to human beings.
5:24
Carmen Lezeth: I was going gonna drop in gaza, but I'm not because I'm so fucking pissed right now.
5:35
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, well I started with.
5:38
Andrea Nunez: I don't want anyone to get shot to death.
5:40
Andrea Nunez: Right, it's horrible, it's wrong.
5:44
Andrea Nunez: I don't want that for anybody.
5:46
Andrea Nunez: I really don't Him or anybody else.
5:49
Andrea Nunez: I just have to be honest.
5:53
Andrea Nunez: I'm having a difficult time working up any real feeling about it other than the general.
5:59
Andrea Nunez: It's a horrible thing that someone got shot to death, just like it is for the other people, but I think that's fair.
6:05
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think that's okay.
6:06
Carmen Lezeth: You're not getting on social media and laughing and joking and making like you're not taking it to this.
6:13
Carmen Lezeth: Look, that's the other part of it, right.
6:15
Carmen Lezeth: We've lost our ability to have just a little bit of dignity, a little bit of fucking manners, and I'm sorry.
6:22
Carmen Lezeth: I'm so thrown by how easy people are just being vile and then we get upset because people are not compassionate or nice to us when our people are murdered.
6:36
Carmen Lezeth: What the fuck Like?
6:38
Carmen Lezeth: Why is that a thing Like our people who were murdered?
6:42
Carmen Lezeth: How come we don't have compassion?
6:43
Andrea Nunez: no, well, look, uh, you know I'm gonna go on my like mini tirade here about social media.
6:51
Andrea Nunez: Right, like this is one of the reasons I'm not on social media, um it, there are all kinds of other reasons, for sure, why we are where we are, but there is something about this, like, like, let me put every thought into my head out into the world and let me make it so extreme and crazy and whatever that it will get attention.
7:15
Andrea Nunez: And you know, I don't know where on the spectrum some of these people are.
7:21
Andrea Nunez: Do they really believe that?
7:22
Andrea Nunez: Or are they just trying to get attention?
7:24
Andrea Nunez: Or you know, uh, you know, go viral or whatever.
7:28
Andrea Nunez: It is right, like I don't know where they are, but it doesn't help, right?
7:33
Andrea Nunez: It does not help to have all of these places where you can just put your ridiculous thoughts out into the world and be a fucking okay, but we're using social media right now.
7:43
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think that's where the problem is, like I hear you, and that's a different conversation about social media that we should definitely have on this show, because I actually think social media is a good thing, I think technology is a good thing, so we can I hear you, I think I hear you.
7:59
Carmen Lezeth: I just think that's a different problem altogether.
8:01
Carmen Lezeth: It's a part of this conversation, I believe.
8:05
Andrea Nunez: Yes, it's a separate conversation, but it is a part of this.
8:09
Andrea Nunez: What?
8:10
Carmen Lezeth: you're talking about, and I actually think there's more good from having social media than not.
8:15
Carmen Lezeth: It's connected the world in different.
8:16
Carmen Lezeth: That's why I think it's a whole other conversation we can have, which we can go down this if you want, but I just feel like that might be a whole.
8:24
Carmen Lezeth: I think the lack of empathy would still be happening right now If we didn't have social media, if we didn't have TikTok or whatever.
8:30
Carmen Lezeth: I still think, as this country has moved forward and as and it's not just this country, but society in general I've said this before people get all creamy and sad and shed a tear when they hear a story about a child who was in a taxi or something with their parent and they found a wallet and they brought it back to the police department.
8:57
Carmen Lezeth: Everyone's like oh my God, that's such a feel good story.
8:59
Carmen Lezeth: No, that's what you're supposed to do.
9:01
Carmen Lezeth: That's not a feel good story, that's a fucking regular thing.
9:05
Carmen Lezeth: But because we don't have the ability to see things like and have emotional connections, that's what we think is a big thing.
9:15
Carmen Lezeth: And then something like this we're okay, mocking, and I can't even believe I'm motherfucking.
9:20
Carmen Lezeth: You know what the other thing is pissing me off is that I have to fucking sit here and kind of defend this shit like I'm pissed about it.
9:25
Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
9:26
Carmen Lezeth: Like, um, I'm just angry about it and and I hate, I hate how I watched a whole bunch of fucking right wing podcasts yesterday, or Christian, christian and I'm doing fucking quotes, uh, podcast podcast.
9:43
Carmen Lezeth: And like that's the other side of it, right, the bullshittery of pretending who he was, like that's the other extreme.
9:51
Carmen Lezeth: It's just mind boggling to me.
9:54
Carmen Lezeth: It's mind boggling to me where we're at.
10:05
Andrea Nunez: I don't really know what to say about it.
10:09
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, it sucks where we're at.
10:14
Andrea Nunez: I guess that's not the part that bothers me the most about it.
10:21
Andrea Nunez: I don't know.
10:22
Andrea Nunez: To me, the tragedy yesterday was that someone had the ability to purchase a weapon that could kill him, and that's a tragedy that happens to people every single day all over the country.
10:39
Carmen Lezeth: With my years of watching NCIS and Law and Order.
10:44
Carmen Lezeth: I just want to say that was a professional hit and that was a fucking sniper.
10:50
Carmen Lezeth: It was like 600 feet away.
10:52
Carmen Lezeth: It was on a rooftop.
10:54
Carmen Lezeth: There is so much that goes into doing that.
10:57
Carmen Lezeth: That was a professional hit and I'm going to make a guess here.
11:00
Carmen Lezeth: I don't think that's the last of it and I wouldn't be surprised totally throwing out a guess here.
11:04
Carmen Lezeth: I don't think that's the last of it and I wouldn't be surprised totally throwing out a guess here, like just a guess, that we're going to find out that, first of all, I don't think it's the last of it and secondly, that it's probably somebody who is on the right.
11:15
Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
11:16
Carmen Lezeth: Like that's the.
11:18
Andrea Nunez: I just Well will we find that out?
11:22
Andrea Nunez: I don't know.
11:23
Carmen Lezeth: But let's just put some circumstantial evidence on the table.
11:28
Andrea Nunez: It was in Utah, it was apparently.
11:32
Andrea Nunez: The picture they released is a young white man.
11:35
Andrea Nunez: Wait, they released the picture.
11:37
Carmen Lezeth: No, no, no, no, no, no.
11:39
Carmen Lezeth: The two people that they had in custody are not.
11:41
Carmen Lezeth: They released a picture today, this morning, all right.
11:44
Carmen Lezeth: Well, him being white is not.
11:46
Carmen Lezeth: I know, I know, I know that was going to be it.
11:49
Andrea Nunez: It was as you said.
11:50
Andrea Nunez: You know, I don't want to say a professional hit, but a skilled Very skilled Person, ncis alum.
11:58
Andrea Nunez: Right, and so you put together those again very circumstantial and whatever.
12:04
Andrea Nunez: Like that evidence points to someone on the right, not you know a coastal elite having brunch and you know getting his soy latte and walking over to the you know, prove me wrong rally to pop off we'll see, but yeah, I didn't know that they they put up, oh my god, and the brilliance of like someone like Kash Patel, who is so incompetent, you know.
12:28
Carmen Lezeth: I mean there was like 15 different.
12:30
Carmen Lezeth: They did catch them.
12:32
Carmen Lezeth: They didn't catch them, so they haven't caught them yet, though, right as of this recording, correct.
12:37
Andrea Nunez: I looked a few, you know, before I started my crossword puzzle.
12:43
Carmen Lezeth: It's just so weird, but yeah, I'm.
12:49
Andrea Nunez: it's just so weird, but yeah, I'm, I'm and and here's the other thing that you're right.
12:51
Andrea Nunez: I don't think we will find that out, not with this administration.
12:53
Carmen Lezeth: That doesn't go with the narrative that they have already produced and put out you know, right, that it's the democrats fault, which is like that's the other part of it, right, not having etiquette, having manners, not realizing that your words are going to incite more violence.
13:07
Carmen Lezeth: But here you are, someone in a position of power, and your first thought and I'm talking about all the Congress people that came out, all the you know what I mean, and, of course, trump and everyone else who's like and just fueling the fire.
13:20
Carmen Lezeth: Fueling the fire so that we can get into what they're doing with their words.
13:25
Carmen Lezeth: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely so, yeah, that'll be interesting.
13:31
Carmen Lezeth: I just hope that no one else gets hurt.
13:35
Carmen Lezeth: I honestly don't want anyone.
13:39
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I just it's horrific.
13:41
Andrea Nunez: It's scary, it's horrific.
13:42
Andrea Nunez: I mean and I, you know, I don't want to be that guy but like, just over a month ago, a Congresswoman in Minnesota was assassinated in her home in the middle of the night and her husband and her husband and her dog, you know, in the middle of the night, by a extreme right-wing wing, you know fascist dude pretending to be a cop.
14:08
Andrea Nunez: So this is not the first.
14:12
Andrea Nunez: It was horrific and terrible then.
14:15
Carmen Lezeth: it is horrific and terrible now, you know and I didn't see all the christian, all the podcast, I didn't see all that empathy, I didn't see all that consideration.
14:28
Carmen Lezeth: And that's what I'm trying to say, right, because we're so desensitized to violence in this country too, we just are.
14:37
Andrea Nunez: Well, and like the pundit class or you know whatever you want to call them.
14:40
Andrea Nunez: Like this, even on the left, like you know, it's it's one of us, it's not just you know, those gangs in the streets, in the cities, right, like it's one of us that was gunned down in broad daylight.
14:57
Andrea Nunez: It's like, yeah, that's the terror, literally, that pretty much every American lives with.
15:04
Andrea Nunez: We can't send our kids to school, people can't go to church, you can't go to the grocery store, you can't go to the movies, you can't go to a music festival, you can't just be driving down the street in your car.
15:15
Andrea Nunez: People are all.
15:18
Andrea Nunez: They're having feelings which for some is a new experience and they're acting like toddlers who don't know how to manage them.
15:29
Andrea Nunez: This means war, you know.
15:32
Andrea Nunez: It's like war against what?
15:35
Andrea Nunez: Take some guns back, motherfuckers.
15:37
Andrea Nunez: Like that's what the war is you know I am so tired.
15:41
Carmen Lezeth: The irony is it's like 76% of Americans believe there should be more gun restrictions or whatever safety gun laws or whatever, and it's the irony that we keep voting people in and of course, the NRA still has the power that it has and the idea that guns are not part of the problem.
16:00
Carmen Lezeth: Although this hit again NCIS professional professional here.
16:04
Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying this seems like somebody who might it wasn't somebody who went and just bought a shotgun or took their mommy or daddy's.
16:13
Andrea Nunez: this seems like they should not have access to a military grade weapon that you can't if you're in the military which possibly this is where this person learned how to do this or not you don't just get to walk off the base with your rifle.
16:30
Andrea Nunez: You know you're like, oh, I'm going to go home for the weekend.
16:32
Andrea Nunez: You know I'm going to take my gun.
16:34
Andrea Nunez: Like the access to this level of weaponry is ridiculous.
16:42
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, Like what do you even say, Like nobody should have that Right.
16:47
Carmen Lezeth: And it's weird because there are other countries that live without gun violence every day and I think they have mental health issues too people who are anti-immigration and you know, whatever they've got all of the things that we have, except the gajillions of guns yeah, I think there's a gun for every adult in the united states I believe there's more than one gun well, these are the guns they know about, because then there are all the other guns we don't know about.
17:29
Carmen Lezeth: But imagine that there's enough guns for at least one.
17:32
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, there's one gun for at least every person in the United States.
17:37
Carmen Lezeth: That's crazy.
17:37
Carmen Lezeth: At least one, yeah, it's crazy, yeah.
17:40
Carmen Lezeth: And and then we don't have the emotional maturity to deal with anything, because if we're angry about anything, right, we don't use our words.
17:49
Carmen Lezeth: We then want to shoot people, which you know is part of the problem.
17:53
Andrea Nunez: We don't know how to fight.
17:54
Andrea Nunez: If you didn't love me enough, let me go kill 40 people.
17:58
Carmen Lezeth: Can you imagine?
17:59
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, yes, we can, because we live with this bullshitter every day, but it's just a weird like on that part.
18:06
Carmen Lezeth: I feel you know.
18:08
Carmen Lezeth: This is where I'm against Republicans 100%.
18:10
Carmen Lezeth: The whole gun thing is ridiculous.
18:12
Carmen Lezeth: It's just.
18:13
Carmen Lezeth: And how would you get them off the street now?
18:16
Carmen Lezeth: Right, I mean, it can be done, but it's just so saturated in our culture and this standing behind.
18:23
Carmen Lezeth: It's so funny how we stand behind our constitution when it's convenient to keep our guns, but not when it's convenient to actually give rights to other people.
18:32
Carmen Lezeth: Right, right, hmm, yeah, interesting.
18:36
Andrea Nunez: I mean, the levels of hypocrisy are, you know, comical at this point, like it's almost not worth it to point it out, but you have to point it out because you can't let it slide.
18:45
Andrea Nunez: But like, come on, you know, the Second amendment is apparently so sacred that any piece of machinery that could kill another person is allowed for any anybody, and you can walk around the grocery store in it in some places.
19:03
Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean I think it's one of my favorite visuals is to see like and it's always white fat men generally.
19:10
Carmen Lezeth: I mean I've seen some black stupid men too, but generally white fat men with like bellies or whatever and they have like 15 guns and they're at like McDonald's or whatever you know, whatever Wahlberg's or whatever it is, and down South, whatever the fuck they have.
19:25
Carmen Lezeth: It's like what are you doing?
19:28
Carmen Lezeth: Like, what is that about that?
19:30
Andrea Nunez: show of force.
19:31
Andrea Nunez: You definitely look tough and not scared to death, for sure.
19:36
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, no, no, no, totally tough and manly, very manly, yeah, very manly.
19:48
Andrea Nunez: So that's always one of my favorite Americana images that, I think, is just so indicative of how ridiculous we are.
19:53
Andrea Nunez: It's really, uh, I've been in places where there's open carry and you see it live and in person and it's like as a human being, you see that type of gun and you're like I'm getting the fuck out of here.
20:06
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, like I don't want to be around anybody, anybody that has that going on, right, because who knows what's happening up here?
20:16
Andrea Nunez: Nothing good, obviously.
20:18
Carmen Lezeth: Well, I don't have an issue, but I do.
20:20
Carmen Lezeth: I have issues with guns.
20:21
Carmen Lezeth: I don't even want to.
20:22
Carmen Lezeth: I think we should not have guns.
20:23
Carmen Lezeth: I want to be very clear about that.
20:25
Carmen Lezeth: That is not even a question.
20:26
Carmen Lezeth: But if you are somebody who's like you're a detective or you're whatever, and you have your gun on you and it's like why is it not concealed Right?
20:34
Carmen Lezeth: Like why, you know, I mean like you're off duty, you're going to stop at McDonald's, but we're talking about people who are strapping shit, have like the rifles, and it's like you clearly put that on and took it with you out the car so that you could go into this, so you can make a show of I am strong.
20:55
Andrea Nunez: It's like cosplay.
20:56
Andrea Nunez: Right, it's a costume.
20:57
Andrea Nunez: Yes, I am dressing up as a tough dude who can't be messed with.
21:05
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, and I need everybody to see it, because I actually feel really small and I don't know how to.
21:12
Carmen Lezeth: I don't know how to get therapy Right and I have a teeny, weeny one.
21:17
Carmen Lezeth: That's all.
21:19
Carmen Lezeth: I don't know that, and like old people driving Porsches, sorry it had to be old, older son Harleys right yeah exactly, totally Okay.
21:29
Carmen Lezeth: I don't want to hear it from anyone, but I'm just saying.
21:31
Carmen Lezeth: It just feels the same.
21:33
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I don't know.
21:34
Carmen Lezeth: And why is it never women who are snipers?
21:38
Carmen Lezeth: You know?
21:38
Carmen Lezeth: Like was the white person?
21:40
Carmen Lezeth: They showed a woman, no, is it weird for me to kind of think that I'm not saying there aren't women killers out there?
21:51
Carmen Lezeth: Right, we know that there are.
21:52
Carmen Lezeth: Is there a way in which we can start trying to think as a country that it might be a good idea to maybe have a woman in power at some point?
22:06
Andrea Nunez: I know, stop, oh my God, now you've really gone mad.
22:10
Andrea Nunez: Stop, oh my God, now you've really gone mad.
22:14
Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying, and then the right will say, well, yes, we're not against that, but it has to be the right woman.
22:22
Carmen Lezeth: Kristi Noem, yeah, there's a great thought.
22:27
Carmen Lezeth: Can you imagine the most qualified women who have run for office?
22:31
Carmen Lezeth: And no, I'm not talking about Sarah fucking Palin, Cause having so much more than any man who's ever been president, and because we're not ready for that either.
22:44
Carmen Lezeth: We're not ready for that at all either.
22:46
Carmen Lezeth: But I'm just saying I have not seen women running around with machine guns.
22:53
Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
22:54
Carmen Lezeth: I'm sure they're out there.
22:55
Carmen Lezeth: I don't live in the South, I don't.
22:57
Andrea Nunez: I mean, there are, I'm sure.
23:02
Carmen Lezeth: Well, those are the ones who have the Christmas cards with their kids holding all the right.
23:07
Carmen Lezeth: The family, everybody's holding their guns and stuff.
23:09
Carmen Lezeth: My apologies, my apologies, right right, the family, everybody's holding their guns and stuff.
23:11
Andrea Nunez: So my apologies, my apologies right, but it's as far as a, you know, a woman being in power.
23:19
Andrea Nunez: I mean we know how that goes right.
23:21
Carmen Lezeth: Um it's not going to happen in our lifetime.
23:23
Carmen Lezeth: I don't think so, no I don't think so either isn't it sad?
23:26
Carmen Lezeth: It is sad about that it's super sad.
23:29
Andrea Nunez: You know.
23:29
Andrea Nunez: I was just talking to someone yesterday Like I don't think that what is happening now will be significantly better in my lifetime.
23:39
Carmen Lezeth: Oh yeah, I agree with you.
23:43
Andrea Nunez: Like we're on a trajectory that I actually, sadly, don't think we bottomed out.
23:48
Andrea Nunez: You know, are you serious?
23:54
Andrea Nunez: Yeah, I mean, if you just look at this, when other countries have been kind of taken over by authoritarians, it takes decades to come out of it.
24:07
Carmen Lezeth: I was thinking about how we would fix this in the next election if we have one, seriously like how, whoever the nominee is going to be, but let's just pretend it's Gavin Newsom or whatever, because it's going to be a white man.
24:22
Andrea Nunez: There's no, it better fucking be a white man.
24:25
Andrea Nunez: You know like I hate myself for even saying it, but like it needs to be a white man honestly, from somewhere in the middle.
24:34
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, less weird, yeah, yeah.
24:38
Carmen Lezeth: So how, I mean, does he just sit down the first three months and start writing executive orders that reverse everything?
24:46
Andrea Nunez: It's just not going to be that easy, you know our entire federal and we, you know we all have our feelings about bureaucracy but, like you know, the, you know lifetime civil servants who have decades of institutional knowledge, our scientists, our statisticians, our lawyers.
25:11
Andrea Nunez: Our FBI agents, fbi lawyers, our FBI agents, our judicial system, yeah, yeah, you know, like they're gone, yeah, and all of the knowledge of what came before and how things actually work and how you get things moving.
25:25
Andrea Nunez: Administrators, payroll clerks I mean the people who actually do the work right, like they're gone.
25:33
Andrea Nunez: This is not a like best case, most rose-colored scenario.
25:39
Andrea Nunez: You know, democrats take back house and senate in two year or whatever, in 26, that's.
25:46
Andrea Nunez: That's a year 2016.
25:49
Andrea Nunez: And then maybe the presidency again, if we even have elections, whatever.
25:55
Andrea Nunez: This is still like a solid, I think, decade away from even becoming something normal again, and when I say that, like the country that we knew does not exist anymore, we have to recreate.
26:16
Carmen Lezeth: At this point, Well, and I shook my head a little bit because and you taught me this the country we had before actually was a lie.
26:27
Andrea Nunez: I know, like all of its flaws, but I'm saying like, yes, what we thought we had, but even what we actually did have flaws, warts and all is actually gone.
26:40
Andrea Nunez: You know, in terms of what it looks like to actually run a country.
26:46
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, you're talking about the technicalities of how we run a country right, and I'm thinking of, you know, the hope, the aspiration if there is like okay, so I want to be more optimistic and just hope that there is a way you can fix some of the technicalities of this.
27:22
Carmen Lezeth: I'm more concerned that the actual thing that makes America great is that idea of hope and possibility and you can come here and be somebody and whatever, like we can find a way for people to.
27:39
Carmen Lezeth: The American dream was always a facade.
27:43
Carmen Lezeth: I think we're all realizing that now, but it would be sad to think we can't get back there again.
27:49
Carmen Lezeth: You know that's I don't know, I don't know I, I, I'm.
27:53
Carmen Lezeth: I know that I'm broken about it, which means something, because I've always been rah, rah America and now I'm like, yeah, blah.
28:03
Andrea Nunez: I mean, look it's.
28:04
Andrea Nunez: You know I would love to have some optimism and some hope.
28:08
Andrea Nunez: Uh, you, you know I long to find it, but you can't have those things without a functioning country.
28:22
Andrea Nunez: You know what I mean.
28:24
Andrea Nunez: Like without the people who show up every day and make sure that people get paid, people get their papers stamped, that they need to go and do whatever the thing is.
28:35
Andrea Nunez: People, you know kids can get student loans or grants or whatever it is.
28:40
Andrea Nunez: To go to school, you know diplomats are fanned out around the world to you know, smooth things over with other countries and maybe some of the people who are gone would come back again, assuming everything goes well.
28:56
Andrea Nunez: But some of those people are lost forever and it's it's.
29:01
Andrea Nunez: I see it.
29:02
Andrea Nunez: I believe it has to be a not like a new creation in terms of a new constitution or whatever, but I don't think there's like can we get it back?
29:13
Andrea Nunez: It is we need to rebuild.
29:15
Andrea Nunez: We need to build something new.
29:16
Andrea Nunez: We need to create something new because things have been lost.
29:22
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I, you look at I, I.
29:25
Carmen Lezeth: That's maybe a lot beyond my pay grade.
29:28
Carmen Lezeth: I'll just admit it right now, In my heart, I want to believe it'll be easier to fix the structural part as opposed to fixing the idea of what America used to be.
29:41
Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
29:42
Carmen Lezeth: I hope I, I, I hope you're wrong, because I'm wrong, I know, I hope I hope you're wrong and I hope there's a way.
29:50
Carmen Lezeth: But we're, I mean, right now, we're at baby steps.
29:53
Carmen Lezeth: Right Right now, we're at this place where we're questioning whether or not we can have fair elections and people are redistricting and you know, in California we have to vote in November to redistrict against our public.
30:10
Carmen Lezeth: Anyways, that's a whole other conversation.
30:13
Carmen Lezeth: But basically and it's so weird because I want to make sure we try to explain things to people but in California we have a separate group of people who actually are in charge of redistricting the state An independent commission that we voted to have.
30:29
Andrea Nunez: That's right.
30:30
Carmen Lezeth: It has nothing to do with politics or whatever.
30:32
Carmen Lezeth: They're independent people who and actually I think that's where we, you and I, were talking about is that where we both applied to be part of that and then we decided not to do it.
30:42
Carmen Lezeth: We were looking at it, I remember.
30:43
Andrea Nunez: We were looking at it right.
30:45
Andrea Nunez: I remember that.
30:45
Carmen Lezeth: I don't think, andrew, actually applied Right and look, they were doing that in order to be objective and to make sure that they represented each district correctly.
30:56
Carmen Lezeth: And now, because of what's happened in Texas and basically Trump cheating and asking the governor there what's his name, I can't stand that man either.
31:06
Carmen Lezeth: I guess he's an enabler.
31:08
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, Abbott, Whatever Abbott, the enabler Turned around and just said yeah, we're just going to change it the way we want it so we can get more seats.
31:16
Carmen Lezeth: That is cheating.
31:18
Carmen Lezeth: There's no other way to explain that people.
31:21
Carmen Lezeth: It's cheating.
31:21
Carmen Lezeth: Explain that people it's cheating.
31:23
Carmen Lezeth: So now the governor of California, Governor Newsom, has turned around and said we're going to ask the people in November in a ballot so we have to vote whether we want to get rid of, just for this time period, the independent redistricting of our state so that we can redistrict it to fight back against the five illegal seats that Texas is now doing and it's ridiculous, but we're going to do it.
31:52
Carmen Lezeth: We're going to do it and we're going to vote yes, because that's what we're going to do in order to try to fight this.
31:57
Carmen Lezeth: And it's like that's the kind of bullshittery that you're talking about, that that structural part is now being dismantled, right, Having an independent commission so that it's done in a fair way, because we have to fight in the way we need to fight in order to be able to have a fair election, which is weird.
32:19
Andrea Nunez: Yes, I completely agree with you, right, I loved the idea of the independent commission.
32:24
Andrea Nunez: I think all we voted for we now essentially have to vote against, and you know, play the game the way they're playing it.
32:52
Andrea Nunez: I hate that, right.
32:54
Andrea Nunez: But again I go back to what we knew is gone.
32:59
Andrea Nunez: We have to work with what is, and what is is that you have these states now Missouri also looking at it and New York, yeah, are going to.
33:11
Andrea Nunez: You know, redistrict away their you know Democrat, you know districts where a Democrat would win, and so essentially removing those Democrats from from office.
33:26
Carmen Lezeth: And and retaliation.
33:27
Carmen Lezeth: What's happening is New York is considering you know and like, and this is the tit for tat, bullshittery that you're talking about.
33:33
Carmen Lezeth: And look, I agree with you.
33:34
Carmen Lezeth: I agree with you and in the same respects, we have to fight the fight we're fighting because of democracy and and for all you Republicans and conservatives, who listen to All About the Joy and are part of this community.
33:48
Carmen Lezeth: I just have to say that I'm okay with you believing what you want to believe, but most of you don't have facts, which is why this show exists.
33:57
Carmen Lezeth: You know, and let me be clear as well I am not a liberal to the left.
34:04
Carmen Lezeth: I have always been more to the middle, and part of what we were going to talk about today is that most people who think they're Republicans are actually not Republicans, and this is one of those.
34:14
Carmen Lezeth: Andrea's about to die.
34:18
Andrea Nunez: I'm fine, I have facts.
34:21
Carmen Lezeth: And I'm going to let you look at.
34:21
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, we were going to make the whole show about this, but maybe we can touch on it a bit.
34:27
Andrea Nunez: But that's kind of where we're coming from Go ahead, andrea, I just want, like, if your ideas win in this sort of marketplace of ideas, why would you not want there to be fairness, right, and so to me that just says something about you know, like I just want to win at all costs.
34:55
Andrea Nunez: I don't want to win at all costs, I don't.
34:58
Andrea Nunez: I want it to be fair, and when you know my politics, the way I've always described it is I want the most good for the most people.
35:05
Andrea Nunez: Right, that's the way that I describe it, and so, uh.
35:09
Andrea Nunez: But to go back to the Republican thing, I guess I said this last week most people are not Republicans and we were going to talk about that.
35:17
Carmen Lezeth: So I did get a couple of people who reached out, which was interesting.
35:20
Andrea Nunez: Um, so I looked it up.
35:22
Andrea Nunez: Uh, you know Again, sources are whatever they are.
35:26
Andrea Nunez: I looked it up on a website called USAFactsorg, which is sourced from state government agencies on the registration of the people in their states.
35:39
Andrea Nunez: So, as of August 2025, so just last month there are 37.4 million registered Republicans in the United States.
35:49
Andrea Nunez: There are 44.1 million registered Democrats, so that's more.
35:57
Andrea Nunez: There are 34.3 million either registered as independent or didn't choose.
36:05
Andrea Nunez: right, I'm non-party affiliate so some of those people could lean right, some could lean left.
36:10
Andrea Nunez: Nonetheless they are not registered republicans.
36:13
Andrea Nunez: And then, just to be fair, there are 3.1 million, uh people in like, I guess lesser parties, I guess is the way they described it so green party Party, libertarian, whatever.
36:23
Andrea Nunez: So that could be a mix as well of right and left.
36:25
Andrea Nunez: But the fact of the matter is I didn't say most people are Democrats.
36:30
Andrea Nunez: I said most people are not Republicans and most people, by this data, are not Republicans, whatever that means.
36:38
Andrea Nunez: Again, to go back to what you said, speak facts or don't speak.
36:44
Carmen Lezeth: Right.
36:44
Carmen Lezeth: I think the other part of it, too, is just when you think about what it means to be a Republican, and that has changed because Trump, trumpism has taken over the Republican party, right, and so we might go into this a little bit later, into in a in another episode.
36:59
Carmen Lezeth: We had to talk about Charlie Kirk a lot, but there's also this weird thing that people will always do, and I had to say it they're like the Republicans freed the slaves.
37:09
Carmen Lezeth: So Lincoln.
37:13
Carmen Lezeth: Lincoln was a Republican.
37:15
Carmen Lezeth: He really was.
37:16
Carmen Lezeth: That's true.
37:17
Carmen Lezeth: But if you don't this is how I know people do not know their history At some point and it was after, like, I think, the 1930s is where it became a big deal the ideologies of both parties kind of switched.
37:34
Carmen Lezeth: Now, that's a really simple way of saying that the Southern Democrats from back in the day were people that believed really, really conservative ideas, and then the Republicans were in the North.
37:50
Carmen Lezeth: Right, they were in the North.
37:51
Carmen Lezeth: So when you talk about Lincoln being somebody who is a Republican and you try to use that as your way to feel good about your party, you don't know your history.
38:03
Carmen Lezeth: This is why people will associate people like Barack Obama with Lincoln, right, that's why, because if Lincoln was around today, he would be a Democrat.
38:15
Carmen Lezeth: So you have to know your history and it's something I think we should talk about, even on that end.
38:20
Carmen Lezeth: Even things like social security.
38:23
Carmen Lezeth: You can't be okay with social security because it affects you and then claim that it's socialist for everyone else.
38:32
Carmen Lezeth: Like it's a weird thought process.
38:37
Carmen Lezeth: You want great streets, you want public places that have police officers, that have bridges, that have good roads, all of that.
38:46
Carmen Lezeth: All of that would be considered democratic policies.
38:50
Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
38:51
Carmen Lezeth: Like that would be socialism.
38:54
Andrea Nunez: It's not.
38:54
Andrea Nunez: You want a weekend.
38:56
Andrea Nunez: You want holiday pay.
38:58
Carmen Lezeth: Yes, you want to be treated fair at work, all of those things, and so when we start getting into and maybe we'll do it next week, it depends on what's in the news Depends, hard to say, hard to say.
39:11
Carmen Lezeth: But look, I want people to take away from this show today at the very least.
39:17
Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I know we're going to be talking about Charlie Kirk for a long time or whatever, but besides that, start really figuring out what your identity is.
39:26
Carmen Lezeth: Are you really a Democrat?
39:29
Carmen Lezeth: Are you really a Republican?
39:30
Carmen Lezeth: Do you really believe everything that the Trump administration is doing Really, not just because you were around it and that's what you voted for and that's what you believe?
39:41
Carmen Lezeth: No, and don't do the one.
39:44
Carmen Lezeth: What is it?
39:45
Carmen Lezeth: One policy vote person.
39:47
Carmen Lezeth: You know how people vote for one thing and that's what they are, what is it Single issue voter?
39:52
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, Don't be a nuance, nuance.
39:57
Andrea Nunez: I mean, yeah, that's.
39:58
Andrea Nunez: My great hope is that people actually really think about what are my values?
40:06
Andrea Nunez: What do I believe in?
40:08
Andrea Nunez: What is actually important to me, aside from what is happening all around me, aside from what my parents or my family taught me, what my church, what my school, whatever, and whatever it is okay, but make sure that it's actually yours and that it's actually what you believe, and it doesn't belong to a party or whatever.
40:33
Carmen Lezeth: And I'm going to say something.
40:34
Carmen Lezeth: I know, I know I'm going to lose.
40:35
Carmen Lezeth: We're going to lose a lot of followers.
40:38
Carmen Lezeth: But, christians, I'm going to give you a shout out here and say seriously, sit down and really think about what you believe and what your Bible seems to be telling you, because there are so many contradictions that are going on.
40:54
Carmen Lezeth: And I will say this, not even kidding I went to 12 years of Catholic school and I, you know I'm not going to sit here and say I know more, but I know a lot more than a lot of you who pretend to be Christians.
41:05
Carmen Lezeth: So I know, I know, I know I probably shouldn't have said that, but it's just mind boggling to me.
41:12
Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, all right, I don't even know what else to say to close this out, but we're at that time period.
41:25
Carmen Lezeth: We need a girl.
41:25
Carmen Lezeth: I know we appreciate you guys listening and we hope you'll come back next week.
41:31
Carmen Lezeth: We're going to keep having these conversations because it's real talk between two friends who don't always agree, but fundamentally we do and we just want I hate to say it this way because you're going to puke but we want the world to be a better place.
41:45
Andrea Nunez: We do.
41:46
Andrea Nunez: There's nothing wrong with that.
41:47
Andrea Nunez: Okay, cool, we would love for the world to be a better place for people to feel good and be happy and joyful and not have to worry about getting shot in the streets.
41:56
Andrea Nunez: That's what we want.
41:58
Carmen Lezeth: That's what we want, right?
41:59
Carmen Lezeth: We want to be able to walk around freely and not be afraid.
42:04
Carmen Lezeth: So, yeah, so remember to check us out on Friday nights.
42:07
Carmen Lezeth: All About the Joy.
42:09
Carmen Lezeth: We have our Friday night lives where everyone can come and hang out and just chill and know we don't talk about politics or religion.
42:15
Carmen Lezeth: We may touch on it a bit.
42:17
Carmen Lezeth: Well, I mean, it's a neighborhood hangout, so everyone is welcome.
42:21
Carmen Lezeth: And, of course, we also have our Sunday show, which is why can't I remember the name of our Sunday show Lord Jesus, the Private Lounge.
42:33
Carmen Lezeth: Yay, sunday is 12 o'clock Pacific, it's private, 3 pm Eastern and we really appreciate you being here.
42:42
Carmen Lezeth: Remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
42:45
Carmen Lezeth: Bye everyone, thank you, bye.
42:47
Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by.
42:52
Carmen Lezeth: All about the joy be better and stay beautiful folks.
42:55
Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.