Politics check in without the doom scroll with Alexis Melvin

The news makes everything feel bigger than your hands. So we zoom in—way in—to the rooms where decisions actually get made, from a rainbow crosswalk on Westheimer to the Governor’s office, the county clerk’s rules, and the federal courts willing to say “no.” We walk through how Harris County collides with state leadership, why executive orders are getting tossed around like confetti, and what the courts are quietly doing to rein in overreach on issues like passport gender designations and due process. The thread through it all is authority: who has it, who pretends to, and how everyday people can push back without burning out.

We also break down the voting labyrinth in Texas: the loss of 24-hour voting, mail-in ballot tripwires, and why the ballot is packed with constitutional amendments that sound nice but hide real structural changes. If you’ve ever wondered why local races matter more than the national drama for your rent, your commute, or your safety, we’ll show you the map—city, county, state—and the specific offices that can change your day-to-day. Along the way, we talk frankly about how culture wars shifted toward trans Texans, how misinformation feeds on distance, and why one-on-one briefings with judges and candidates still move the needle more than any viral clip.

No scolding, no doom spiral—just a clear path to agency. Bring a friend to vote early, use the wait-time map, help an elder navigate mail-in rules, and read amendment guides from trusted local reps before you tap “yes.” If you want to do more, there’s a seat at the table: caucuses, clubs, phone banks, and postcard nights that turn strangers into neighbors. Subscribe for thoughtful, grounded conversations, share this with someone who’s politically tired but curious, and leave a review to help more listeners find us. Your proximity is your power—ready to use it?

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting the Stakes: Algorithms & Mood
• 3:30 Texas Power Structure 101
• 8:20 Harris County vs. State Leadership
• 12:40 Voting Access: 24-Hour Polls to Mail Chaos
• 16:30 Culture Wars Pivot to Trans Texans
• 21:20 Executive Orders, Authority, and Courts
• 26:10 Federal Overreach, Guard Deployments, Due Process
• 31:00 Courts Push Back: Passports & Injunctions
• 36:10 Texas Fairness, Lawsuits, and Ethics
• 42:30 North vs. South Discrimination: A Contrast
• 47:00 Lies Without Penalty and Media Spin
• 51:30 Layers of Government: Who Actually Decides
• 57:20 How Influence Works: Briefings, Access, Accountability
• 1:03:40 Voting Fatigue and Mail-In Barriers
• 1:09:10 Constitutional Amendments: Read the Fine Print
• 1:14:00 Getting Involved: Practical On-Ramps

Transcript

Host: Robin: 0:01

Welcome to 22 Sides. This is Robin Mack, and today I'm here with our co-host, Alexis Melvin. And Alexis and I want to talk a little bit about politics. Don't turn it off. Don't turn it off.

Co Host: Alexis: 0:13

It could be a horrible podcast, but we'll warn you a little later in the podcast if it is. I'm not sure that works though. But uh yeah, because we don't talk about politics that much. We're happy to have other people talk about politics, but we decided to today.

Host: Robin: 0:32

Yeah, today's a good day. There's a lot going on globally, nationally, statewide, citywide. We're in October 10th, and so we're nine days into the shutdown, the governmental shutdown. And you are 76 years old, I'm 42 years old. There have been a few shutdowns already, and there have been a few wars going on. You know, I I think you and I come always come to the table on uh I I'm always finding myself calling you saying, like, what what what's the perspective on this? Like, how can one grasp all that there is to grasp and move forward besides just your social media clips and your bait, you know?

Co Host: Alexis: 1:19

It's interesting because um the algorithm gives us totally different social media clips.

Host: Robin: 1:26

Totally different.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:27

I get all the positive things that are happening.

Host: Robin: 1:29

And I get like all the negative.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:31

And so yeah, I like mine better, actually. It it allows me to live through the day and not feel like I have to be too worried about things.

Host: Robin: 1:40

Aaron Powell Mine has uh mental wellness side effects. It's it's it's a real downer. And some of it's also real, and then some of it's also probably exaggerated by AI, right? And it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:53

Aaron Powell Well, and and you know, you say exaggerated by AI. If it's exaggerated, it's exaggerated by people using AI.

Host: Robin: 2:00

Aaron Powell Fair, very fair.

Co Host: Alexis: 2:01

I you know, I get tired of this blaming AI. I'm like, you know, that that's sort of like we blame everything that's new, even though it has nothing to do with it because it's the people that point it the right direction, the direction it's supposed to go.

Speaker 5: 2:12

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 2:13

But uh but yeah, and and you know, if if you look at it, we're in Houston, Texas. And that's in Harris County, Texas. Um our governor hates our county and our city, but he does.

Host: Robin: 2:25

He really does.

Co Host: Alexis: 2:26

Because we aren't exactly in line with what he would like to be policies.

Host: Robin: 2:30

No, I think.

Co Host: Alexis: 2:30

We happen to believe in freedom of religion or from religion, either one. And he doesn't. He believes that there's one true religion, that's him. And um so, you know, we so we have that problem, and he keeps trying to find ways to attack Harris County. But the problem he has is that we're the largest.

Host: Robin: 2:49

It's so big.

Co Host: Alexis: 2:51

Yeah, we're huge. And we're the largest voter base in Texas.

Host: Robin: 2:54

And we really do deliver on a vote. And Texas is a big state, but Harris County needs to be considered on everything because it could be a uh a tipping point, if you will.

Co Host: Alexis: 3:03

And yeah, and and you know, from from the state politics, the um statewide races who are are the statewide officers who are all Republicans really dislike Harris County because Harris County is much more liberal than they are. It's almost impossible not to be more liberal than they are if you're a human being.

Host: Robin: 3:24

But yeah, you're getting those politicians now that are saying, I've been a Republican my whole life and this scares me, right? Yeah, exactly.

Co Host: Alexis: 3:30

And and and and it's true.

Host: Robin: 3:32

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 3:33

I mean, I'm I'm not a Republican or a Democrat, I'm truly an independent. Um I've voted Republican, I've voted, you know, Democrat, everything else. But this is scary.

Host: Robin: 3:42

Well, and at this point, we can safely say that if you do not like your existence in Texas, Abbott is a source of that. I mean, he's been in his seat for over nine years.

Co Host: Alexis: 3:53

Well, it and it's three of them. It it's the uh governor, the attorney general, and the lieutenant governor. Lieutenant governor runs the Senate in Texas, and he sort of enables everything that Abbott wants to do. And they sometimes have an argument because he wants to be worse than Abbott is.

Host: Robin: 4:10

Yes.

Co Host: Alexis: 4:11

And and then the attorney general just sues everybody.

Host: Robin: 4:14

Yeah, the dude's always in court and avoiding court himself. Like it's it's interesting.

Co Host: Alexis: 4:19

And he's had multiple felony indictments, like most of the Republicans, it seems like he even goes to other states and sues for some reason, as if he doesn't have enough to do here. He sued Illinois, so Illinois's now sued Texas. Yeah. But at least they sued uh Abbott instead of uh Paxton, who's the attorney general. So it it it's a lively state politically. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Host: Robin: 4:38

Oh, definitely. And we're in September, so a lot of the legislation that got passed or didn't get passed is going into effect now. So people are actually learning the impact of how to implement that.

Co Host: Alexis: 4:48

And the nice thing about Texas is if you didn't like the last election, we have another one next week.

Host: Robin: 4:53

Right. Early voting starting for something.

Co Host: Alexis: 4:55

Yeah, we're voting for something almost constantly. So people have, you know, voting burnout and it's crazy. And then Harris County, if it's a big election or a reasonably, you know, large election like the primaries or a general election, we're gonna have more than a hundred items on the ballot. And so voting doesn't take like two or three seconds, it takes forever.

Host: Robin: 5:17

Sometimes it it's quite a few pages, right? Like it just kind of goes on, yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 5:20

Yeah, and and that's small print when they print them out. So it's sort of interesting. We're getting ready to start as as Robin said, early voting. Um in Texas we do early voting. I personally think it's interesting that we do because the uh people in Austin, the governor, et cetera, have tried to shut down every kind of voting we had for a while in Harris County. You know, we had 24-hour voting for people who happen to do shift work.

Host: Robin: 5:49

I loved that. I really wish we still had that. That was the first time that some people had ever voted in their life because they had enough time to get to the polls and they were shift workers, like like you said, uh uh working during the night, sleeping during the day, or medics who couldn't leave the ambulance uh and go go vote. Like they had plenty of time to do it.

Co Host: Alexis: 6:08

And so, you know, by making it 24-7 and it wasn't a big deal money wise. Everybody's like, well, it costs so much money. No, it didn't. No. If you if you look at it, I mean, we wasted more on putting weird orange balls in the Rio Grande River. Uh wasted way more than that. Um but but you know, it it's it's an interesting situation because I think right now they're starting to run out of steam. They've attacked people so much that it's unbelievable. Um yeah, I I think you know the comics are starting to pick up on the fact that they're having trouble coming up with new people to beat up on, and so that's why the trans people are being beat up on because well the blacks got a little too strong and a little too much of a pushback, and they don't want to do that. And the Hispanics, oh well, you know, you really don't want to beat up on the Hispanics, not if you want to get elected in Texas anyway. Right. And so, you know, that that leaves it with the LGBT groups and the gay stuff has already been discussed, and a lot of the gays are very wealthy. Right. And so this makes a problem for them. So guess what? It's the rest of us.

Host: Robin: 7:11

Right. It's the rainbow crosswalks and and you know uh whatever next agitation they can come up with.

Co Host: Alexis: 7:17

The thing is that in Houston, I don't know how many years ago, but several years ago, um Houston Pride plus a couple other groups, and I don't remember who they are for sure, put together the funds and convinced the city to let them paint a rainbow crosswalk.

Host: Robin: 7:36

Right, we're a major city, why not have one? Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 7:38

Yeah, one. I mean, this isn't like we're doing the whole city. Yeah. Well, but we might be now. But you know, and and so with normal street repair, the group that was going to do the street repair, of course, paved over the rainbow crosswalk.

Host: Robin: 7:57

Right. There's always construction in Houston.

Co Host: Alexis: 7:59

Yeah, and this is on Westheimer at Taft. And so there was lots of discussion about the fact that they destroyed something that had been paid for, not necessarily by public money. And so after a while, um some of the politicians, the uh city council members got involved. This was like last week. And then everybody else started to get involved, and then candidates started to get involved. Yeah. And and and you know it's gonna be a big issue when candidates started to get involved, and the local TV station started covering it.

Host: Robin: 8:32

Yeah, well, it it got it got some spin because I got a text from somebody in San Antonio yesterday wondering if Houston was gonna lose their crosswalk, and so it's making the news, you know, and it's getting the clicks. And I there's a part of me that wants to change the algorithm to the things that we want to talk about, but I guess there's some power in writing the algorithm where it goes, because I don't I don't know if you can change it. But um I appreciate the politicians jumping in and talking about it because they're gonna make the the talking points theirs, you know.

Co Host: Alexis: 9:01

Oh, yeah. And and the thing about it is that day to day, it's either going to be replaced or it's not going to be replaced. And then, of course, we get the quote LGBTQ community that says, well, they were just painting the rainbow flag, not the new rainbow flag. And unless we get a new rainbow flag, we aren't sure we want it.

Host: Robin: 9:23

Right. We can have our inner community fights. But I imagine people seeing politicians speaking for them right now would feel really good, like some allyship.

Co Host: Alexis: 9:32

Yeah, and so there's been lots and lots and lots of discussion in a very short period of time. And the near town super neighborhood, you know, committee. I don't know what it's called, but it's a group. And it's an official group has gotten involved.

Host: Robin: 9:51

The super neighborhoods, yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 9:52

Yeah. And they're like, oh no, it needs to be repainted, it needs to be done, or whatever. And so our mayor told one of the city council members, look, I I can't spend a lot of time up there. Just go do it.

Host: Robin: 10:06

There are so many other things I have to do as a mayor right now.

Co Host: Alexis: 10:09

And there are a lot of things that the mayor needs to take care of.

Host: Robin: 10:11

Well, and I feel like that is that I mean, that was my perspective on it. It's like, you know, if it was just a regular Monday and we're living in Pleasantville and this is the one hiccup, okay, but no, no, no, no, no. You know, we have a lot going on.

Co Host: Alexis: 10:28

Yeah, we're losing more water than making it to houses just because of broken pipes underground.

Host: Robin: 10:32

Exactly.

Co Host: Alexis: 10:33

And I mean lots of stuff like that. But anyway, so this council member went and did it as instructed to, or as told that they they could do it.

Speaker 2: 10:42

Good for them.

Co Host: Alexis: 10:42

And that started the whole argument. And that's when the governor came in and says, Well, I'm gonna do an executive order that says you can't have any political statements on streets. Well, he doesn't have the authority to do that.

Host: Robin: 10:55

Oh, interesting.

Co Host: Alexis: 10:56

Um, at least all the lawyers that have said anything say he doesn't have that authority.

Host: Robin: 11:02

I feel like that's the season we're in if we had to name it like we're we're in a who has authority and who's going to push for accountability. Because even if you're talking about the president, every day it's like, does he have that authority? I don't know. Let's check.

Co Host: Alexis: 11:16

And it has to go to court, and the courts take so long because our courts are designed to be clunky pretty much on purpose. But we have a president that's just rolling out things.

Speaker 5: 11:25

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 11:26

It's like every every day at two we sign another executive order. And you know, and so, you know, right now I think our governor in Texas thinks, well, if if the president can do it, I can do it.

Host: Robin: 11:38

Oh, well, that's interesting. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 11:39

And it doesn't really matter whether it's legal or not, because what do I care?

Host: Robin: 11:43

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 11:43

Uh who's going to sue me? Who's going to take who's going to take the Trevor Burrus?

Host: Robin: 11:46

He does seem to have a bit of that attitude. I mean, I was hearing that in two different states they were evaluating whether or not Trump can send what is it, the National Guard into Portland and Chicago.

Co Host: Alexis: 12:01

I think those are the things that are that's in court currently, and who knows. And I'm hoping the courts decide the right way, which is without the governor's invitation.

Host: Robin: 12:11

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 12:12

He can't do that.

Host: Robin: 12:13

And I mean I feel bad about it. They're sending the Texas Guard over the Aaron.

Co Host: Alexis: 12:16

That's what I was going to say. So Trump's backup was to talk to his buddy Abbott and say, okay, I need the Texas Guard to go up to Illinois. Well, the Illinois governor is just not happy about that. He's like, we're being invaded by Texas.

Host: Robin: 12:28

Yeah. So you say that puts us in a what a state-to-state mix instead of a national.

Co Host: Alexis: 12:33

There's some stuff in the Constitution about how they have to defend states against states, the federal government does. Okay. And, you know, it's sort of obscure stuff, but it's there. And Trump's using all the obscure stuff in the world. Like he's talking about using the Insurrection Act, which it doesn't apply to any of this, but it, you know, he's going to claim it does, and then he has to go to court, and the court's going to have to tell him. And you know, fortunately, the courts have started being a little bit more reasonable about some of the stuff that he's doing. But, you know.

Host: Robin: 13:01

Like how so.

Co Host: Alexis: 13:03

Well, you know, I mean, the courts basically, you know, he was there there was something that came out in the Biden administration that allowed people to choose the gender and how they wanted their passport to look. And I think the Biden administration's approach was that this isn't something that really matters a lot. And so whatever makes people happy and comfortable, we're good to go with. They set it up with all sorts of other people. Well, the Trump administration decided that you couldn't do that.

Speaker 2: 13:34

Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 13:35

And that's okay because Biden did it as an executive order, which was not a good way to do it.

Host: Robin: 13:40

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 13:41

I mean, he should have pushed it through as a law. But they did an executive order reversing that executive order. But then they went a step further and they're like, but what we're going to do is if you send an application in, we aren't just going to reject the application because of that. What we're going to say is we'll change it for you. And you send in a renewal passport, we'll change it to the thing that we think is the right thing, right uh gender or whatever. Okay. Well, that's not okay. Okay. And so there was a lawsuit in the East Coast, and they they did the right thing and made it a class action suit. And um a district court said, you know, no, people have a right to their gender the way it is on a passport and other things, but the passport's what we're talking about. And so they did a temporary injunction, and then after a while with the government trying to argue that that wasn't the case, and the court saying, okay, I'm not hearing any arguments that are persuasive, they made it a permanent injunction against the Trump administration doing that. There you go. And so then the Trump administration immediately appealed it to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, who immediately said, Nope, we agree with the lower court. And so the Trump administration is asking for an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court hasn't responded at all one way or the other, so who knows what's going to happen with it. But currently, it is the law of the land, if you're a transgender person that you have a right, but you do have to be a transgender person, you have a right to pick your gender. Okay, that just puts us back where we were, which is good. And so there's all sorts of stuff like that. Now, my real question is who's gonna go get the money back that the Trump administration spent for this bullshit? Because, you know, they're spending our money.

Host: Robin: 15:33

Well, and that's what I always end up.

Co Host: Alexis: 15:35

And to defend it, we have to spend our money. And I'm like, this is this is far from the fairness thing.

Host: Robin: 15:40

So who would that be?

Co Host: Alexis: 15:41

Oh, that would have to be the government or an individual could sue.

Host: Robin: 15:45

Okay. I mean, I often ask that about the special sessions here in Texas. Like, okay, do people know how expensive that is? Do they know, you know, out of all, you know, supposedly we don't have any taxpayers' money besides property taxes, but they spend so much running legislation.

Co Host: Alexis: 16:03

Well, you know. And the other thing is if somebody sues them, which does happen a lot. And and you know, we got a lot of lawyers that work for the state of Texas. I mean a whole bunch. But our Attorney General likes to go out and hire outside legal counsel to get specialists in this. Frequently these outside legal counsel come from the firm that our attorney general is a partner in.

Host: Robin: 16:27

Hmm. That can't be ethical.

Co Host: Alexis: 16:29

And and granted, he's recused himself for anything there, but when they make money, it still goes into his partnership share and sits there waiting for him to not be in office anymore.

Speaker 2: 16:38

Hmm. That seems seems questionable. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 16:42

You said ethical a minute ago, and I was like, ethics. Yeah, their ethics are much different than a lot of people's.

Host: Robin: 16:48

That's Texas ethics.

Co Host: Alexis: 16:50

No, it's not Texas ethics. Okay. Texas ethics is fairness.

Host: Robin: 16:54

Okay. Tell me a little bit about that for those that don't know.

Co Host: Alexis: 16:56

Yeah, I mean, Texas is interesting because the one thing and I have to go back to the 70s to make it clean, but for instance, in the 70s, the big thing about Texas and Texas business and Texas politics was fairness. Now, does that mean they give in to everything? No.

Speaker 5: 17:13

No.

Co Host: Alexis: 17:14

But if they determined that something wasn't fair, then you know that was okay. They would reverse what they were doing. And usually you get something like, okay, I don't like it, but to be fair, we've got to do this this way.

unknown: 17:27

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Host: Robin: 17:27

And how much do you think that is still uh in motion today? Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 17:33

I mean, in politics, it is totally gone.

Host: Robin: 17:36

Well, in business.

Co Host: Alexis: 17:37

In business, a lot of it is still here, but there's an awful lot of companies that are coming in from east and west coasts, and that's not their ethics. And I mean, you know, Texas ethics when I first came to Texas, which was in 1970, uh, they were sort of like the cowboy western ethics. You know, you you don't support bullies, you don't bully people. If you see someone being bullied, you step up and help, and somebody who can't take care of themselves, you take care of them. And and you know, and and you worry more about fairness than anything else. A handshake is better than a contract, in all honesty, because contracts always have weasel words in them. And a handshake doesn't have weasel words, and so you know, your your word is your bond, and those things. Oh, that's pretty much gone out the window. And and and I will grant you that's fifty years I'm talking about, but it's still something that has changed quite a bit. And and the other thing about it was that it included a little bit that says, okay, if you take your shot at me first and I take a shot back, that's equal, then if you lose, you can't really be too upset about it, and I won't be at all upset to try to cut down some of the frivolous lawsuits. It didn't work at all. And so then they made one change to it. And I mean it was only one change. And you know, because what they did was put in something that says if if your lawsuit turns out to be frivolous and you've just filed it to hope somebody settles it, then you know, you owe all the money and and this sort of stuff. Well, it didn't work at all. But they changed it and said, you and your lawyers own all the money. Oh all the money.

Host: Robin: 19:12

The lawyers are like, oh never mind.

Co Host: Alexis: 19:13

The frivolous lawsuits just went away. I mean, there are a few, but not very many now.

Host: Robin: 19:18

Language makes a difference.

Co Host: Alexis: 19:20

Well, and it's the fact that if I'm a homeless person on the streets and I say somebody swerved and bumped me with a car, uh-huh. And so I sue them. And it's a totally frivolous lawsuit, and they prove that it's frivolous for some way or other. They have cameras or who knows. Well, the fact that I have to pay them back several hundred thousand dollars makes no difference. You know, they they can have my blanket and grocery cart. I'll find another one someplace.

Speaker 5: 19:50

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 19:50

On the other hand, if you throw in you and your lawyers who have then you have someone on the hook. Then all of a sudden, there's a different thing. So lawyers started filtering the cases they're taking and stopped filing that sort of thing. So that yeah, that was sort of a good thing. Now, the problem again that we have is that the lawyers for the state spend our money. And they spend it for personal reasons, not for the best use of it for the state. Now, there's some disagreement there because they feel like that supporting their religion and their supporters is the in the best interest of the state.

Speaker 2: 20:28

Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 20:28

Some of us don't feel that.

Host: Robin: 20:32

Well, you know a lot about different sectors of politics and you know a lot about the checks and balances of how America was designed. Do you think that is what gives you a more steady outlook on how things are going? I mean, you obviously have perspective, but Well, there's two or three things I do.

Co Host: Alexis: 20:54

I mean it's hard to be positive if you happen to be a transgender person, which I am. And because we're attacked we're being attacked like you wouldn't believe. In fact, when I first started doing uh activism stuff in 1963, we weren't under attack at all. They didn't know we existed, to be really blunt. They were attacking the blacks, and so I was I was helping defend the black community because that was equally wrong. Right. Maybe more so. Yeah. But uh, you know, now we've moved forward and the blacks have gained some power and so nobody wants to really mess with them too much, and that's good. And same thing with Hispanics. But when but you know, so that leaves us. And and we're being attacked with ridiculous things. Um it's one thing to be attacked with the truth. And we are not perfect, and our community is not perfect. And we have some squirrely people in our community.

Host: Robin: 21:47

And it's also not a monolith, just like all the other groups you just listed.

Co Host: Alexis: 21:51

But you know, the things that they accuse us of is crazy, and if you're trans or no trans people, you know it's crazy.

Host: Robin: 22:00

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 22:01

But most people don't know that, and so it's a real problem.

Host: Robin: 22:05

Yeah, and I think there was a belief that if you did know more about trans people, then you would understand that these are just hoaxes, these are just, you know, and so, you know, distractions. Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 22:17

And so one of the organizations that I'm president of, we've went about trying to make sure as many people as possible knew more about trans people. And it actually has helped uh in Harris County. Now, the rest of the state isn't interested in that because then the governor wouldn't be able to raise a whole lot of money from his religious zealot donors.

Speaker 5: 22:36

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Co Host: Alexis: 22:37

Because they're anti-trans. Now there's no reason for it, but they just are. They have to have something to attack somebody to attack and belittle.

Host: Robin: 22:46

I think I think that that is what people get high off of. Like I feel like i if in general, if we just assess, like, it doesn't matter who they're mad at or who they want to punish or who they want to discriminate against, and we just look at the actions of the people doing that, like they don't they don't really stop. You know, and sometimes they do say, oh, well, I'll stop for people like me, but you know, it's very little, very little.

Co Host: Alexis: 23:11

And and so it it it's like I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a while and lived in Texas much longer, fortunately. Believe it or not, I actually said that and I believe that. But you know, people talk about discrimination, the southern discrimination and the northern discrimination. Well, there is a difference, it's a huge difference.

Host: Robin: 23:29

Right. What is it for your from your perspective?

Co Host: Alexis: 23:31

Well, okay, if you're in the South, pick a group, it doesn't matter what the group is, they're horrible. They, you know, they they shouldn't be allowed around other people, et cetera. But now the ones that I know and that I work with and that are you know my friends, they're all fine. And so if if they're known, they're all fine. In the north, it's like, oh well, they're all just fine. Oh, I don't want them on my block. Oh no, no, I'm not gonna I don't want to work with them. I don't want to have them in my company. And so it's sort of an inverse of that. And I sort of like the southern discrimination better. It seems more legitimate.

Host: Robin: 24:07

And more upfront, right? Like none of this uh nice, nasty, nasty, nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 24:13

And and but but you know, and I was surprised when I found that because I was expecting no discrimination against, you know, race and national origin, and boy, there's it's it's worse than it's a lot of different things. It's very different. It's different. It just like it's sealed out. I mean, realtors won't even take you to see houses that they're like, no, that's the wrong part of town.

Host: Robin: 24:33

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 24:33

It's very and I'm like, I didn't think we had redlining. They're like, no, it's the wrong part of town.

Host: Robin: 24:38

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Co Host: Alexis: 24:40

And you know, and it it but it's sort of interesting.

Host: Robin: 24:42

So in the South, it's just a little bit more upfront.

Co Host: Alexis: 24:44

Yeah, south it's upfront, which makes it easier to address, really.

Host: Robin: 24:48

Personally, as much as it can take like a mental toll seeing the hate out there, if it's authentic hate, if people are telling you that they do not like X, Y, and Z, whatever kind, whatever, yeah, it's hard to see, it's hard to feel, it's hard to witness. But I always feel like I'm so glad to know from afar. Yeah, yeah. I'm so glad to know that people are showing you who they really are.

Co Host: Alexis: 25:13

In some cases there are reasons. And those people actually in discussions frequently change their mind.

Host: Robin: 25:20

That's true though, because when you meet someone one-on-one and you can have a conversation, you and I both have had many of uh examples of this where people are able to talk out whatever their uh level of interest is, wherever their level of scaredness is, where their level of commitment is to one another. And then at the end of the day, they're like, well, I guess it's not that bad mostly.

Co Host: Alexis: 25:46

And unfortunately, in politics these days, there's no penalty for lying.

Host: Robin: 25:51

Yeah, that's a big problem.

Co Host: Alexis: 25:52

I mean, if if if I go to Austin to testify before the Senate committee on something, first thing they do is swear me in. And I did the last time I went and say, okay, I have a question. Would you all promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth when you're making your statements? And they're like, well, we don't have to do that. I'm like, that's obvious because you're gonna sit here and lie.

Host: Robin: 26:14

And they do the whole time.

Co Host: Alexis: 26:16

The whole time. And so I'm like, this is not fair, it's wrong-sided.

Host: Robin: 26:21

And thankfully, our politicians, now that we've sent in, you know, have actually called them out on that. Yeah, say the truth in real time. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 26:30

And that sort of thing. So, you know, we we worked our way up to national politics. And the thing with national politics that I see as hope is the courts have started to actually look at some facts. And you know, there's some of the very unpopular court decisions, and I'm not going to go through them, that sure I happen to think are correct. Sure. I mean, you know, if a court decision was flawed and it was done for political reasons, which a lot of them that we like are, and it gets reversed, okay. I I have problems being upset about that because it's like, you know, it probably never should have gone the way it went to begin with, and it's being corrected. Yeah. And, you know, and and so it's like find a better case to take up and make your case. And and so, you know, those I think are happening. Now there are some really bad decisions that are being made because they feel like they have to go with the person that appointed them. And, you know, that that's a bit of a problem and needs to be corrected. And I it wouldn't surprise me if uh we start hearing about people wanting to impeach various judges, etc. Um, interesting.

Speaker 2: 27:40

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 27:40

I think we've sort of started hearing about that already. Okay. And it's one thing if, you know, I'm sitting here saying, guys, we need to impeach so-and-so because of this ruling they made.

Speaker 5: 27:50

Uh-huh.

Co Host: Alexis: 27:50

It's another thing if governors of several states are saying we need to impeach these people because of the rulings they've made. That's a whole different level. And that started to happen. I mean, you know, right now, California and Illinois are really pissed at some things.

Host: Robin: 28:06

Mm-hmm.

Co Host: Alexis: 28:07

And they're pissed at the same thing.

Host: Robin: 28:09

Rightfully so. I mean, there's their cities have National Guards in them, and they're I you know, again, it's scary. And I I hear a lot of people saying, well, why is it that they get to get away with having these quote unquote ICE agents with masks on? Like, how do you know? Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 28:27

How do you know grabbing people?

Host: Robin: 28:29

How do you know if they're like people playing with their toy chests and their, you know, their guns and their uniforms, or if they're actually legitimate? And even if they are legitimate, what's the process? Thankfully there's protesters that are trying to push back and follow this.

Co Host: Alexis: 28:45

That people should get due process. The problem is that by the time that happens, the Trump administration is moving them outside the United States and outside the jurisdiction of the courts, which a couple of the courts are now very upset about.

Host: Robin: 28:55

And that's what I thought was happening, so I'm glad you put voice to that. Yeah. And you know, because it's hard to keep up.

Co Host: Alexis: 29:02

Well, yeah, because they're going so fast and and they do the bit of saying, well, what can they do to me because I'm the president? And what the people around them don't understand is, yes, he's the president. Yes, there's very little you can do to the president. But everybody else, you know, you can. Now he's claiming exactly privilege for people and all that, but that that only lasts so long.

Host: Robin: 29:23

Well, and I think I heard on the morning news the other day that some of the original taken people that were uh going over to Venezuela that are most of those people have been returned and given back now. But I don't hear that like across all the news channels. Like I you know, you don't you don't hear the the the ending part of those stories?

Co Host: Alexis: 29:45

The ending part of it is a lot of them.

Host: Robin: 29:46

Which keeps it scary.

Co Host: Alexis: 29:48

And and and you know, when when they're being forced to bring people back, they're over investigating them. It's stuff that would never be brought up, it would never go to court, and it's like, okay, well, there's this traffic ticket he didn't pay 10 years. Years ago. I'm sorry, that's not reason to grab him off the street and deport him with no warrant.

Host: Robin: 30:06

Yeah, very scary. Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 30:09

And and that now, a bunch of them, the ones that are being investigated that way are the ones that have found lawyers and they're suing the government.

Host: Robin: 30:16

Now, can I ask you this because it occurs to me that that tac that technique, like pulling people off the streets and holding them for some little thing that maybe happened, maybe didn't happen. I mean, is that something you've ever seen before in America?

Co Host: Alexis: 30:38

Oh, not in America.

Host: Robin: 30:39

Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 30:40

Um in my lifetime, Italy's done that a bit, and you know, trying to get back to dictatorship. That's how Nazi Germany got their stuff done. That's how dictators show up and come in. Now, you know, I happen to think that Trump wants to be a dictator.

Host: Robin: 30:55

He said he wanted to be one day one. Yeah. You know, but he also said that he would help with food prices, and that's not happening.

Co Host: Alexis: 31:02

So he's helping with them, he's helping the companies with them, but not the people.

Host: Robin: 31:06

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 31:06

They're going sky high. But but you know, that the whole thing is that's sort of the tone in politics right now. And and it's a really bad tone. Now, I think the election was fair. I think he was fairly fairly elected. I wish he hadn't been. This is me personally, but I think he was. So we're stuck with him, and the midterms are coming up in about a year and a half. It seems like seems like it's been much longer with him this time with all the stuff he's doing.

Host: Robin: 31:32

You were just saying that you're watching some talk back about the farmers, and they're acknowledging that they did vote for him for a few reasons. One of them being that he could bring prices down, one of them being that maybe he would help with the tariffs and whatnot. And so these things are not being met. And they're acknowledging, yeah, I did vote for him. Like, do you think they'll change their mind?

Co Host: Alexis: 31:52

Uh the ones that were interviewed on the news in Arkansas and um this was PBS, have definitely changed their mind.

Host: Robin: 32:01

Oh, okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 32:02

And they said, you know, he promised subsidies, he promised all sorts of stuff, and there are subsidies for the farmers in the big beautiful bill. However, they don't kick in till September 2026 or sometime in the fall of 2026. All of their government loans that they have before are due in January or February. So the chances are almost 100% that their farms are going to be foreclosed on because they just don't have the money.

Speaker 2: 32:29

It's gonna have a huge impact. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 32:31

And especially the soybean farmers who used to sell all their soybeans to China. China's buying no soybeans from the United States now. So they've they've got zero, that was their biggest market. Wow. And so they have good crops, they have fields full of them, and there's nobody that wants them.

Speaker 5: 32:48

Wow.

Co Host: Alexis: 32:49

And yeah, this is the problem. Anytime you're doing something at a national level, you've got to deep think it. Well, I don't think I I think they're deep thinking it, but not in the way it that's good for the people. They're deep thinking it and what can we get out of this?

Host: Robin: 33:05

And that's kind of how I've really seen the differences of the parties, and I know people get hooked about this, but the way I've seen it is one party is still for the people and helping all people as much as they can. Maybe they have plans about that, maybe they don't. But one party is about helping certain people and also limiting a whole lot of other people.

Co Host: Alexis: 33:30

Oh, yeah, they don't care uh me. I don't like either party.

Host: Robin: 33:34

No, I'm not saying I like them or don't like them, but I'm just saying if you take the labels out of it, the actions are completely different.

Co Host: Alexis: 33:41

Well, for instance, I get the idea that universal health care is great. How do we do it?

Host: Robin: 33:48

I don't know, but right now uh the the prices are too high for most people to be insured and taken care of. Right. So I don't know.

Co Host: Alexis: 33:57

Yeah, prices are going up because they pull back the um what do I want to say, the the subsidies. Right. And I mean that that's why the government's closed right now is because the Democrats want the subsidies back.

Speaker 5: 34:11

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 34:12

Now you know my problem is that I have to deal with what in my mind I have to deal with the facts whether I like it or not. And the facts are that the Republican bill for keeping the government open is pretty much a clean bill. It just says we're just gonna stay at the same levels and go on. It it only it does have a couple things that are added.

Host: Robin: 34:34

There's always a couple things, yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 34:35

There's always a couple things.

Speaker 2: 34:36

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 34:37

But it it's not horrible. And my guess is you could negotiate those things out if they wanted to. The Democrats are using this as a way to get health care coverage back for a lot of people. Right. I think that's a worthy cause. And, you know, it's hurting a lot of government employees and a lot of people that rely on the government for their income, but I think it's a worthy cause. Now I suspect, given history, the Democrats are going to back down.

Host: Robin: 35:06

Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I always have. And we need something. You know, if you're deciding between your medication and your groceries, or your groceries, your medication, or your rent, like this is getting really hard for people. I I keep thinking, and I know it's just such a thing of the past now, but I I think of the Yang Gang saying that he had done the math, and if everyone had just gotten $1,000 a month, you can give it away, you can save it, you could put it in for your emergency spending plan. But that would make the poverty level in America more right-sized. And so many people were against that. But it like I I almost every person I know could really benefit from that.

Co Host: Alexis: 35:47

You say they're against that, but Donald Trump's promising them two thousand now. He's trying to buy votes. Because he's seeing the writing on the wall that says in the midterms they could be in trouble because when the midterms come up, if the uh Democrats take the House and Senate, which they could, I mean six months ago there was no chance they'd take either House.

Host: Robin: 36:08

Okay. Now the polls are saying, well it's So where's this two thousand coming in?

Co Host: Alexis: 36:14

Yeah. Oh he just that's what he put on, I guess it was true social or something. Oh, okay. He's going to be giving everybody a thousand to two thousand dollars.

Host: Robin: 36:22

Huh. But is this one of those magic bedposts, or I mean, is this you think there's some legs to it?

Co Host: Alexis: 36:29

But you know, people are gonna say, wait a minute. So they're gonna think about it. By keeping in, I get a thousand dollars. They're gonna get duped to get it. It's called buying votes, and that's what he's doing. I looked at it and I'm like, well, at least he's going direct.

Host: Robin: 36:38

Well, and Elon bought votes, didn't he? Wasn't that a thing?

Co Host: Alexis: 36:41

Well, yeah, but those that was his own money.

Host: Robin: 36:44

That's true. I guess if a random guy wants to pay people, then I mean if I want to go pay people to go vote.

Co Host: Alexis: 36:51

Right. Now I can't say who they vote for, it's not because that's not legal. But if I just want to say, hey, I think I think everybody in this line is doing great.

Host: Robin: 37:00

Here's a line that I can work with. They actually already showed up. Now you're willing and dealing with it.

Co Host: Alexis: 37:09

I don't believe there's any real law against doing it. Okay. But they will claim you're doing it for political reasons, and they would be right.

Speaker 2: 37:16

Okay. Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 37:17

But but you know, just wanted to say, you know what? I really like the uh district that I'm in here. I'm gonna send everybody a thousand bucks. I'm gonna get their addresses, and it's just gonna show up in your uh mailbox.

Speaker 5: 37:32

Hey.

Co Host: Alexis: 37:33

Well, the first thing that's gonna happen is mailbox theft's gonna go sky high.

Host: Robin: 37:36

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 37:38

So so that that's a little problem there because the mail is just not secure anymore. Oh, wait, that's the government, another government service that you killed all. It used to be perfect.

Host: Robin: 37:47

I know, it's so sad. I'm not laughing. It's sad. You know, I mean what did the mail people ever do to you? Gosh, they're already doing such a physical labor.

Co Host: Alexis: 37:59

And we wonder why the term going post still came about.

Host: Robin: 38:02

Seriously.

Co Host: Alexis: 38:03

So so you know, you you got all that. Now, you know, if uh we get down more to local politics, it doesn't get better.

Host: Robin: 38:12

It really doesn't. And and that's where I'm like, so how do you find a way to move forward? Is this is this like you just personally have endurance to keep going after such a long season, or is there something you see that I don't see?

Co Host: Alexis: 38:28

Yeah, well, I see stuff you don't see, but that's beside the point.

Host: Robin: 38:32

Fair.

Speaker: 38:33

I I have luncheons and phone calls.

Host: Robin: 38:36

Oh, uh no, no, no, absolutely, absolutely.

Co Host: Alexis: 38:38

But what what I was about to say is, see, one of the things about it is you're like, I get around on the phone. I actually I was gonna say I'm not going to as many meetings as I used to, but I get phone calls. Yeah. And and and one of the interesting things is I I guess I should do a really quick overview. I was going to say for people who aren't from Texas, uh, but it's probably for people in Texas too. I yeah. But we have a lot of government.

Host: Robin: 39:05

I mean, it really honestly, this this whole episode presences me to like a lot of government, from school boards on up, right?

Co Host: Alexis: 39:12

Yeah, and you know, I mean, we have the federal government, which people hopefully know about, but nobody really understands it very well, including them, I'm convinced. Um, then we have state government, of course, and the state government, as mentioned earlier, really doesn't like Harris County in Houston. But that's okay because we have a lot of people that push back against them. And so some of the things they do come through and they they stick it in legislation, but then there's a lot of representation that Houston Harris County has that pushes back. And it sort of goes one way and then the other way a little bit. It's been going one way a little too long, in my opinion. But um, you know, it the arguments get to be really strange. You know, for instance, the whole abortion argument is well, we're saving kids' lives, but we're gonna let them starve to death the week after they're born.

Host: Robin: 40:02

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 40:02

It it's we aren't gonna enable anything because we're getting rid of all the support that you know kids have that maybe don't have parents that can take care of.

Host: Robin: 40:11

You know, well when Abbott said he wanted everyone to be able to experience parenthood like him and his wife and they have foster kids, I was just thinking, you know, there's no shred of me that even believes this. Uh living in Texas, I don't I don't know how to support foster kids. I don't know where foster kids are. Okay. He's we have a horrible foster care system. And and he doesn't even allow for everyone to adopt very easily. So I just can't I can't I just can't with the lies. It's it's all uh And as we know, medical conditions before actually having pregnancy is of concern. And I think they're they're just using this last legislature to to rectify some of that because even doctors were you know you know having their hands tied, not wanting to.

Co Host: Alexis: 41:01

Right now they still do. Now it's been backed off a little bit.

Host: Robin: 41:04

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 41:04

And that was mainly because of the fights by some of the Harris County representatives and and those sorts of things. But we have you know, we have state that we have. Uh then after we come down, I'm coming down from quote the largest to the smallest, but then we go down and we have counties, and the county has a full set of government administration, and then we have cities, towns, et cetera, and those sorts of things. And then within the cities, if you're a bigger city like Houston, with the largest in Texas and fourth largest in the U.S., I guess. Um I think we should split in two, but that's okay. That way we get out of the press more. But you know, if we we have cities that are large cities, then we have all sorts of things like we have tiers that build roads, and we have metro that handles the uh theoretically mass transit.

Host: Robin: 41:56

Um very problematic, yeah. Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 41:59

And and the problem with all these things is that oh, and and I forgot about the constable districts.

Speaker 5: 42:06

Mm-hmm.

Co Host: Alexis: 42:06

Yeah, for for some law enforcement. And of course, when we go that way, we have sheriffs which are county, we have city police that are city. So I mean it it's a very complicated system of the city.

Host: Robin: 42:16

We have Texas Rangers.

Co Host: Alexis: 42:17

We have a Texas Ranger, that's that's state, and we have the Department of Public Safety, which is state. And the only one that people don't attack is the Texas Rangers. And I'm serious, it it it's a long tradition in Texas. And you know, they sort of clean their own house, it seems like. And and yeah, they have things that they do wrong, and the first thing you ever hear about it is that they're taking the person in custody and it's going to court and person being dealt with.

Host: Robin: 42:45

Handling it.

Co Host: Alexis: 42:46

And and you know, so you you don't see where they're calling the FBI to investigate them or something like that. Um which is I've always found interesting.

Host: Robin: 42:55

It's like And then I think we have Border Patrol. Is that like a different type of sector?

Co Host: Alexis: 43:00

Probably.

Host: Robin: 43:00

Probably.

Co Host: Alexis: 43:01

Border Patrol is federal.

Host: Robin: 43:03

Oh, okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 43:03

They're all over the place. Okay. Um and and you know, it's sort of interesting because their only jurisdiction is within a hundred miles of the border, but they do have jurisdiction anywhere within a hundred miles of international border, which in South Texas it says they have jurisdiction over a whole lot. Right. Uh so we we have all of that stuff. Now, a lot of those positions are elected.

Host: Robin: 43:29

Right. Even the super neighborhoods, I think I don't I don't know.

Co Host: Alexis: 43:36

Right. There were an attempt that uh city council and mayor made several years ago. I was trying to remember who put them in, to stop uh neighborhoods and their committees and their clubs and all this stuff from showing up in council um open session, you you would have like fifty of them there sometimes. Right. And they're like, okay, so why don't we combine you all and you know make super neighborhoods as opposed to just neighborhoods?

Host: Robin: 44:09

Give a voice to the people, supposedly.

Co Host: Alexis: 44:12

And and and you know, I I actually think that was a good idea because people don't show up to the super neighborhood meetings very often.

Host: Robin: 44:18

It's not uh I don't think it's very well attended, but uh I I are those elected positions or they volunteer? I don't know.

Co Host: Alexis: 44:24

They're elected from the neighborhoods, they are not on a ballot anyway. Okay.

Host: Robin: 44:27

And then we have city appointed positions.

Co Host: Alexis: 44:30

We have city appointed positions. There's a lot of quite a few positions that can be appointed by the mayor with the agreement of council. And there's a bunch of those. They they run various things for the city or advise. There's sort of like two sets of them, advisory and uh deliberating groups. The deliberating groups run something for the city. And they're on their own, they run it, they're responsible for it. City, other than doing an audit and sort of loosely overseeing it, does nothing with it. The advisory committees are just that. They're if the mayor wants advice, he'll go ask them. If he doesn't want advice, he won't ask them and they get frustrated. That's my editorial comment on it.

Host: Robin: 45:13

So there's all these layers.

Co Host: Alexis: 45:16

There's all these layers, and a lot of them are elected or they're one layer below the elected. Like the mayor's office has a whole lot of stuff in it in Houston because we have what's known as a strong mayor council government, which means nothing can be put on the agenda without the mayor's opinion. Now, there was an ordinance that was passed that changed that, and I think it's in effect. I think it passed and is in effect because the council members want to be able to put something on the agenda with a vote of three council members.

Host: Robin: 45:46

Okay, because yeah, so you can get it heard.

Co Host: Alexis: 45:49

Exactly. Well, the problem is the mayor still has to call it. I mean, the may if the mayor is sitting there, he still has to bring up the next item, and if he just skips that one, it's skipped.

Host: Robin: 46:00

There's always some pushback and some loopholes.

Co Host: Alexis: 46:02

Yeah. And so, you know, you still have to work with the mayor and and this whole bit. Uh some mayors work well with council, some mayors don't.

Host: Robin: 46:10

And so how do you keep going with all this? Like how How do I keep what? How do you keep going with all this? Like how is it overwhelming for you? Because I mean it it can be for me.

Co Host: Alexis: 46:20

It is sometimes. Okay. Um my approach is that I treat all of these people as people. Um get to know quite a few of them at one level or another. Um the LGBTQ political political caucus, the Houston LGBTQ political caucus, and I had to say it twice because I got it wrong the first time. People always get it wrong. Um one of the things the caucus does is very good screening of candidates that want to run that might want their endorsement.

Host: Robin: 46:52

Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 46:53

Now, in the past, well, long time ago, almost nobody screened with the caucus because they didn't want the fact that they were friendly to the LGBTQ commandity community on their uh political resume.

Speaker 2: 47:11

Okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 47:13

I mean, there were even people that were members of it, they're like, oh, I'm I'm I'm too afraid to do that. And then it got to where it went from that to an almost required thing. You have to screen with the caucus, otherwise you aren't taken seriously. And so now it started going back the other direction where a lot of people don't screen. Now, one of the differences is the caucus used to go out and solicit people to come and screen with them. And now they don't. They just say, here's when we're doing the screening, here's the applications. If you want to screen with us, send it in. Which, you know, there's goods and bads with that. I personally would do more solicitation. And and the caucus is nonpartisan, sort of. I don't know when the last time they endorsed a Republican was. Actually, I do. It's been a really long time. Um so, you know, you get to meet a lot of people there, and the nice thing about the caucus is that, you know, like at their meetings, like this time of year, there's going to be probably 20 or 30 candidates that show up, and about the same number of caucus members show up for the meeting. And there's a pretty good amount of meet and greet time before and after.

Host: Robin: 48:20

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 48:20

And all the candidates get to take one minute and make their spiels to the caucus. Um, some people think it should be longer. One minute is fine. They, you know, any any reasonable politician can give you a one-minute elevator speech and tell you everything you want to know about.

Host: Robin: 48:35

Oh, easily.

Co Host: Alexis: 48:36

And since they get to do it over and over and over again, uh, they can vary it a little bit. And so, you know, gotten to know a bunch of them that way, was on the caucus board for a while. Um, that was a different experience, to say the least. Uh but uh then also I personally with other things that I do meet politicians or what I consider like pre-politician candidates. Now, one of the things that I do is if there's somebody that I think is good as a candidate, and they're sort of definitely going to run, or they're probably going to run, or they should run, and those are lots of different classes, I offer to give them a really thorough briefing on the LGBTQ community so that they won't stumble over it.

Host: Robin: 49:24

And have you found in your private conversations with people that people actually want to know, they actually generally want to try, or is this a just a performative meeting?

Co Host: Alexis: 49:38

There's no reason for them to spend the time. My briefing takes an hour. And I mean it's plus or minus three minutes to be really blunt. However, I always set it up so that I can spend a lot more time if they have questions. And some of these briefings, because of their questions, end up going to three or four hours.

Host: Robin: 49:58

So why do you do it? Like you have you have your perspective on how things have been in your life, you have the knowledge that you apply to how to filter that perspective, and then you have the time and energy to go and facilitate conversations, relationships, uh openings for opportunity and whatnot. Have you found a reason as to why you still make this a part of your life? Because it it seems to take up a a large piece of the case.

Speaker: 50:29

It can take up a large piece of it.

Host: Robin: 50:30

Right, depending on the season and what you're doing.

Co Host: Alexis: 50:33

I happen to think that these people, especially the judges and the local politicians and the ones that represent us in Austin, can affect everybody's lives way more than people think.

Host: Robin: 50:46

I mean I've always heard what is it, the further down the ballot the more they impact your life. Yeah. You know, like you could you could vote for the president, but but if the the judge that you would see is more likely to make an impact on your life with a speeding ticket or renting issues or whatnot.

Co Host: Alexis: 51:04

Right. Now granted the uh I mean maybe that was past presidents. The senator can do more to screw you around or make things better, but they aren't directly to you. Right. The local people are directly to you.

Host: Robin: 51:17

Usually, yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 51:18

And they're pretty important. And you know, there's a lot of really good people who are running. You know, my view is that the best way to start out is to make sure people are educated, and then if they do something, you can get really pissed at them because it's like you knew this. You know, we sat there and talked, and you knew this, so don't give me the bit of well, I didn't understand. No. Right.

Host: Robin: 51:43

So you're you're starting from the ground up in accountability.

Co Host: Alexis: 51:46

Yeah, that doesn't fly. And I mean, these aren't just local people, there's national people, and I mean I'm not gonna name names, but there's a whole lot of names that everybody would recognize to say the least. And they're interested in knowing more about what they're talking about. Now, I've had very few Republicans take me up on that, and yes, I've offered it to Republicans. Um there have been a couple, and they basically spent most of the time disagreeing with me. And I'm like, you know, I'm not actually trying to convince you of anything.

Host: Robin: 52:18

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 52:18

I'm telling you facts. If you don't like the fact, I'm sorry.

Host: Robin: 52:22

It's so weird when people say, Well, I don't agree with like your existence. It's like, oh, that's not required.

Co Host: Alexis: 52:30

Well, and and you know, you know, like you can get crazy and it's like, okay, so if I don't exist, yeah.

Host: Robin: 52:35

What?

Co Host: Alexis: 52:36

Then why are you sitting here?

Host: Robin: 52:38

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 52:41

You know, I've never had anyone say they didn't agree with my existence, by the way.

Host: Robin: 52:44

Oh. I've had plenty.

Co Host: Alexis: 52:46

I'm sure. Well, so it sounds like but the big thing about it is that number one, they start to learn a little bit more about the community, and I make very sure that if it's controversial, I explain the controversy. Okay. You know, because there there's some things that I will guarantee you there is no way to get the LGBTQ community right. It's impossible to get it right. Right. Because if you got it right, we will make a change.

Host: Robin: 53:18

It's a shifting. Yeah. Everything shifts.

Co Host: Alexis: 53:21

We'll just be upset.

Host: Robin: 53:22

Everything shifts.

Co Host: Alexis: 53:23

Yeah, we'll just be upset that you didn't get it right.

Host: Robin: 53:26

That that is that is our tent.

Co Host: Alexis: 53:30

Oh, they're horrible. I get people's pronouns wrong all the time, and I'm like, okay, sorry about that. And go on.

Host: Robin: 53:35

Well, focusing on that doesn't make a huge life change, but it can alter your your life if you can't do other things. But but but all in all. Why do you do it?

Co Host: Alexis: 53:46

Okay, number one, it lets me sleep at night. Okay, that's important. Because the people I've talked to and briefed are like appellate court justices, judges of various courts, uh DAs, um basically cabinet people. Um I mean all levels. It it and JPs, for instance, yeah. And people who want to be all of those things.

Host: Robin: 54:17

Well, and it's interesting because you're saying this, and I can just picture a listener, if someone's listening this long, to be thinking that well, maybe you're exceptional.

Co Host: Alexis: 54:27

Maybe you Well, of course I think I am exceptional, but that's just my ego.

Host: Robin: 54:32

But I just want to say any person can set a meeting, any person can go and volunteer for political campaigns, any person can learn and educate or work the voting polls. You know, like you there's lots of places to get started. And I I just want to re-presence like you have been doing this for a really long time. Like this is a developed flex. You've got to be able to do that.

Co Host: Alexis: 54:53

I mean, I grew up in politics.

Host: Robin: 54:55

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 54:55

So and I'm not young.

Host: Robin: 54:57

Right. I think we've said that old before, but I have had conversations with people since maybe 2015-ish, when a lot of the dumpster fires were picking up heat, if you will, uh that people coming in for different reasons, everything from trees to human rights, and uh getting really active and caring and what that process looks like. Like you can go to speaking agreements, you can meet people who care about the same things. Like there are places that you can get affiliated with the things that might help you sleep better at night. There's always a place to start. Like, for instance, a local poet, we've talked to plenty of poets on this podcast, but a local poet is just having a um a postcard writing night where you write postcards to the things that or to the people in swing states talking about the things that politics can actually revive at this point. And like that's helpful and that's passive, it's active, but it's it's it's it's kind, it's not in anyone's face. You don't even know who you're sending it to, basically. You know. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 55:57

And and you know, the biggest thing is that it's harder for people to hate you if they have a face on it.

Speaker 2: 56:05

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 56:06

Right. And the other part of it is from my end, one of the things I do is, you know, the first thing I get asked by half a dozen half of the people is, so how much do you charge? Well, I don't charge. I probably should have. In hindsight, sometimes I wish I had charged.

Host: Robin: 56:23

Especially when it goes on long, I'm sure. Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 56:25

Yeah. But no, I don't charge because to me this is like a public service. It's something I'm doing for my community. Service works. And we have evidence in polls that have been run that it actually works. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Host: Robin: 56:35

Oh, okay.

Co Host: Alexis: 56:36

I mean, it really I do want to focus on that.

Host: Robin: 56:39

It really does work. And and I think the poet said the reason why she was doing the postcards was because next to getting a knock at your door and meeting a politician, getting something handwritten in the mail makes a difference because I think it brings that human factor. And a few years ago, I heard people say they had always been registered their whole life, but no one came to their door to talk to them. And I th I was thinking, are you kidding me? I I don't even know when you're home. Like what who how how would a politician walk in a hundred degree heat in Houston and catch you at your door? Would you literally answer it? Like at that point, you could have done so many more things to get there. I I And it usually takes them longer than they thought it would be. I'm hit or miss. There's um my neighborhoods get hit often, and I already know about the politicians. Right, I do too, but it's and a lot of it is there are people who are working with them.

Co Host: Alexis: 57:27

But but I I get to finish the why do I do this?

Host: Robin: 57:30

Oh, keep going.

Co Host: Alexis: 57:31

So I have these conversations. Okay. And a lot of them seem to find them very valuable and tell me that later.

Speaker 5: 57:39

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 57:39

The other thing is that I also know who I find friendly, who I think is good. Uh, you know, really get a good feel of people doing an hour discussion and sometimes much, much, much longer. So if there's something that I think's a problem, I have somebody I can call and they recognize my name.

Speaker 5: 57:59

Very important.

Co Host: Alexis: 58:00

And, you know, and and I I don't do the dumpster fire over the fact that somebody out front shouted at me or something. I could care less. Right, right. But but you know, if there's something that's important, I have a lot of people I can call. And and I mean, I I think, you know, with with some things, uh the the the joke is that various people ask me, said, So who should I talk to about that? And I usually think about it and give them an answer. And then if it's somebody who's friendly with me and says, And do you have their number in your phone? I'm like, Of course I do. But you gotta be careful.

Host: Robin: 58:36

That's your phone, not their phone.

Co Host: Alexis: 58:38

Because this is a real number.

Host: Robin: 58:40

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 58:40

And and you know, I have people that call me from the floor of the house saying You really do.

Host: Robin: 58:46

I think that's amazing.

Co Host: Alexis: 58:47

Okay, there's this thing up, and I want to make sure I get this right.

Speaker: 58:50

So let me talk you through it real quick, and I gotta hurry because I'm up to speak next, you know, or something like this. And I'm like, okay, here's here's a quick short version.

Host: Robin: 59:01

Or or people calling saying, you know, this uh topical issue just hit and I have I need talking points. Also, it's today. Let's talk.

Speaker: 59:08

It's today, I've got to be on the news in an hour.

Host: Robin: 59:11

Which is kind of how it happens when it's so uh flash in the pan topics.

Co Host: Alexis: 59:17

And then you see them on the news. Or somebody from Washington calling saying, I need a I need a quote that can be used for this, and then the politician blows the quote.

Host: Robin: 59:26

Oh, that's tough.

Co Host: Alexis: 59:28

But but you know, but but that's that's how I can sleep at night because I we have good people. Now, they're being beat up and they're getting they really are, yeah. And so that that's a big worry I have. Yeah. But the other part of it is that you know the courts are starting to correct things. In Texas, the courts have pretty much done okay. Uh we have a weird court system too, because we have two highest level courts. We have Court of Criminal Appeals and then we have the Supreme Court and one of them is for civil stuff and the other one is for criminal stuff. And and so you know it it's interesting because most of the stuff is on the civil side that that we would want corrected. And and so you know the big thing is to get people out to vote because we have so many elections. Everybody has election fatigue.

Speaker 5: 1:00:21

Mm-hmm.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:00:22

I mean seriously how many times should you be going to vote a year?

Host: Robin: 1:00:26

I mean it's a lot if you We do probably twenty. Yeah if you're in Harris County, especially with some of these runoffs, especially with some of these seats open, not open, like quite frankly I look around I drive past voting polls thankfully and I I know when to vote because the signs are there. Like I'm never I'm never looking at I'm never looking at dates. I'm never I'm never you know I just can't keep up with that.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:00:52

But if the signs are out then I'll go okay well what do I need to what do I need to pay attention to and I have friends that call me and say okay you know early voting starts this week. And and the mail-in voting the state has made so many stipulations on it that a lot of the mail-in ballots just are invalid.

Host: Robin: 1:01:11

I heard they were getting just more and more complicated which I think is a shame because it offers such accessibility to people who can't leave their houses or drive and things like this and and are are impaired in one way or the other but you know and we we watch these other states and they just drop off they just put in the mail and that's it. You know I like they have that privilege.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:01:32

So and you know for certain people like if you're over sixty or sixty five I don't know what the I think it's over sixty five you can do that. The problem is that there's a lot of details that you have to do like you have to take your voter numbers and put certain things in certain places and certain things on the envelope and certain things here. And they reject it if it's not all there. Right. So you're taking someone say eighty years old and you're wanting them to be very very specific and read all of this detail stuff and transfer numbers from one place to the other and not make a mistake it's like no this is set up to fail.

Host: Robin: 1:02:07

Yeah.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:02:07

And fortunately a lot of the county clerks who handle this will take the approach of saying well we have the right to correct things if it's obvious what it is and so they do. Some others are like no way nope it's gotta be perfect. If it isn't perfect you do it again.

Host: Robin: 1:02:23

Yeah it's not it's not a unified answer.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:02:25

And so we we have an election coming up we always have an election coming up this election doesn't have many people running because it's a special election as far as people go but the ballot has a whole lot of constitutional amendments. I didn't know the Texas Constitution needed this much amending.

Host: Robin: 1:02:45

Well I think there is I'm looking at a rough draft from Penny Shaw Penny Morales Shaw and there are he's one of our favorite local politicians oh gosh I love her. She's a representative she was doing a talk the other night so if you look at state representative Penny Morales Shaw's website she has lots of really good information but particularly this is uh what Alexis is talking about is there are 17 propositions and these propositions are all to amend the Texas Constitution which is a big deal.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:03:21

If you go through it and you read what they're putting on the ballot they all sound good. But then if you read what it actually hooks to as far as the actual amendments they don't sound good.

Host: Robin: 1:03:34

Right and what I like about her page is she writes out what the concerns actually are. That's helpful it gets you to think about it.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:03:42

And and some of them are like nuanced concerns it it's like they're playing games of going around things and trying to get it into the Constitution because there are a lot of protections in the Texas Constitution that uh people who would be dictators don't like right and since we are in a uh want to be dictator since the season exactly yeah to say the least and so you know the the quick and dirty version of this is there's only one in that whole list that I am going to be voting for. I don't know which one it is I'd have to go through but if you want to hurry just vote no on all of them. And yeah we lose one good one okay hey you know we have you shut up and voted. We we didn't get sixteen others.

Host: Robin: 1:04:28

There you go.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:04:28

If you want to read through all of them go to Penny's website them's good gambling odds. Right exactly and go on through it. Now the fact is probably most of them will pass because they always do. Wow and the reason is because the base of the Republican Party base will always vote for them if they're their amendments and these are all their amendments.

Host: Robin: 1:04:50

Oh okay I see well we got to get out and vote and locally your vote really does make a difference to some of these seats have been flipped or stopped with just a couple of votes and I would say the same nationally like nationally is really important as well.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:05:08

And I have yeah exactly uh what I'm gonna say is I I have people ask me all the time how to get involved in politics and we sort of touched on that a little bit earlier. Well it's actually pretty darn easy.

Host: Robin: 1:05:19

What do you usually say?

Co Host: Alexis: 1:05:20

When when they ask I'm like okay to begin with go run for office.

Host: Robin: 1:05:24

Oh and after they're you'll learn yeah yeah then you're involved yeah if they wake up and they're still wanting to talk about it then they'll actually go do some of the work after entry into politics just vote.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:05:40

There are all sorts of groups um democratic clubs republican clubs uh LGBTQ caucuses uh Hispanic caucuses yeah groups that have your your similar similar passions yeah and pick one that works for you and go to it yeah yeah and some of it's just uh voter registration and and you know you and I talk about it all the time like it is now harder to order a Domino's pizza than it is to go vote.

Host: Robin: 1:06:12

Oh much harder like voting is so easy we we we we make so much out of it and there's so much rhetoric and things but the actual act of voting I like Harris County's uh videos that they do now you know you you go in you spin a wheel uh and click on boxes it's it's a very like not even technically involved video game basically updated now they click on the screen but they updated the video too yeah okay so then you click on the boxes you want to vote for and that's it you just vote like that's it it's not it's not hard at all and you know most people or not most people a lot of people are afraid to go right I understand being afraid I do it's nerve wracking g well given ice these days right that I understand that's absolutely true can can I say that ice won't pull some shit no because no very fair very fair yeah but you know you should talk to a lawyer if you're really worried about that and I think they're going to tell you that you know the act of voting is sort of sacred in the laws and so I mean there's a lot of things that can't happen when you're on your way to vote.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:07:19

Mm-hmm. And and so you know but but talk to a lawyer about that one. But the other thing is they're also worried about it being not a safe place to go physically and those sorts of things. We have voting centers now where you can vote any place in the county and a lot of them I will guarantee you are probably some of the safer places in town.

Host: Robin: 1:07:43

Yes I do believe that a lot of them are are deeply safe and and it it but it is nerve wracking. I always go with friends and I always go to a location I know and the cool thing about Harris County if you are in it and maybe yours has this but your county might not be as big they have a tracker on which location has lines which can be really helpful if you're just like ducking out for lunch gonna go vote and then come back you want to go to one that's not super um frequented and during the pandemic I'm not sure which voting locations were kept or dropped but you know some of them were voting in uh high school gyms and then some of them were literally voting in a spa they had a a f a a voting booth in in one of the spas and so my friend was like I literally just got a lavender scented towel and I got to vote.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:08:32

How cool is this and and also you know there at one point in time there were some voting centers set up in some of the bars. Right right in LGBT uh bars one of the bars buddies uh had a voting booth and it was just supposedly safer yeah and and you know the big thing about it though is churches have voting booths I voted West Group Universities yeah you know I d you know most most colleges have something set up to support the college people University of Houston and Texas Southern and Rice do. Yeah. At least they have in the past I'm sure they will this time. Just don't make it hard. But the big thing was that Harris County went to voting centers where everybody can vote at any place.

Host: Robin: 1:09:17

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:09:18

And before that you had to vote in your precinct.

Host: Robin: 1:09:21

Oh that was hard. No that part was hard.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:09:23

You could vote any place in early voting but on election day you had to go find your precinct. Yeah very confusing not enough time for traffic not enough time for traffic and a lot of people had no idea where or what or anything else.

Host: Robin: 1:09:36

Yeah people say why can't we all just have one day to vote and then we go vote and you know there's this debate on whether you should be you have to like you should be forced to vote basically one way or the other and other countries have tried this it's it's a mixed bag but we're trying to do what we can.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:09:53

And you know I mean one of the proposals that I've seen is that why don't we make voting day a holiday and everybody will vote that day.

Speaker 2: 1:10:00

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:10:01

And if we do it like Mexico, we don't serve alcohol those days. Everybody's like I can't vote without alcohol the big thing about it is I don't see I mean I don't like a lot about what's being done in our state and country right now. But in the last few months I see that it's slowly starting to come back and the checks and balances are starting to work. Now that could all go down the tube to it could have gone down the tube while we're recording this podcast.

Host: Robin: 1:10:35

Yeah I mean in the last few months I've seen more people be aware about politics whether it's uh the war in Gaza or Ukraine and and I've seen people actually start to speak to it or think about it and it takes what it takes, you know and the news media is starting to call them out. Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:10:52

I mean like in Portland I keep seeing these reports from Portland on various stations, not just one and they're like okay so I'm headed for the epicenter of the uh war zone that is Portland. And they say that war zone like it's quote and you go down and they're like okay so there's four people in not okay in in costumes. Yeah they look like mascot costumes.

Host: Robin: 1:11:21

See that's why people stop watching the news is because there's this cry for wolf situation and it it jacks up your nervous system.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:11:28

I'm not seeing the war zone no a few hours ago the people in the dissention detention center decided to throw some tear gas so that they could be filmed. Mm-hmm but we no worry because they're what they might hear.

Host: Robin: 1:11:42

Right. Yeah yeah there's a bit of all that and I know that you know but I know that there are some severe issues that are going on and it's easy to become afraid it's easy to become uh in the mindset that you can't do anything but I I hope that by talking about these layers and by talking about what one person has done, you Alexis Melvin you know maybe people will get inspired.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:12:10

Well but you can also go vote. And every yeah yeah I mean my one of my questions when someone's complaining almost always is did you vote in the last election? Mm-hmm you'd be surprised how many people said well no. Mm-hmm and I'm like I'm just not as interested in your complaints right now.

Host: Robin: 1:12:25

Well and you and I have been to voting rallies where people who legally can you know because they're not of age yet because they have backgrounds that don't allow them to vote can't vote and they're still doing a lot of the volunteer work. They're still doing a lot of the please vote for me because I can't, you know, like a voice labor and I mean there's still something that everyone can do.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:12:50

Who could easily vote that just don't show up I mean less than 50% of the people that are completely registered ready to go in Harris County vote.

Host: Robin: 1:12:57

Trevor Burrus Yeah there's definitely am I right in thinking that there's more people who are registered and don't vote than the people who do vote.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:13:05

Yes.

Host: Robin: 1:13:05

Okay so you know that's that's really loud.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:13:10

And you know if you don't vote you have to do things to keep your registration active so these are people who are doing things to stay registered.

Host: Robin: 1:13:18

Well and I do understand that a lot of people are like I don't like this system so I'm not playing and I but I don't unless you're gonna rebuild a system on top of this I don't understand that thought process. The problem is And I'm I'm not in no shade I just really don't understand what do you what do we do during all this the system and you're not playing but it's playing with you. Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:13:39

And so what you're doing is just sitting there letting it get it continue to be impacted yeah. And and that says you're accepting the bullying you're accepting all this it's just not the good way to do it. Yeah yeah and voting's not much of a pushback.

Host: Robin: 1:13:52

No It's like a few clicks.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:13:55

And you know you should know that anybody can find out whether or not you voted. They can't find out how you voted but they can find out whether you voted or not so and and there are people who run around doing that. Mm-hmm and that sort of thing. And and if you vote regularly you will get more calls from politicians.

Host: Robin: 1:14:12

That's true.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:14:14

And so that could be a downside or an upside your choice.

Host: Robin: 1:14:17

You know people get upset about that and like okay well talk to them or block them. Like it's not that hard. It's very easy in fact how how different is that from a spam call? Like it's fine.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:14:25

Oh the spam calls are actually horrible. Yeah so yeah I mean this is this is my big thing about failure of government I'm like we can't even stop spam calls.

Host: Robin: 1:14:34

Right.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:14:34

We can't stop robocalls how are we gonna stop a war in the other part of the world.

Host: Robin: 1:14:39

Right. Well thank you for talking with me on this I think that we covered a lot and I think it was a perfect time to do so and if you're listening please take care it can be it can be a lot you got to do some things for yourself. You gotta go out and enjoy the fall you gotta stay grounded and if you're interested in any other other any other of the episodes please check in with that. For those of you that are subscribing it really makes a difference to like to leave a review to share and to donate towards the podcast if you have it with you if you want to we really appreciate it. It helps us keep our fees uh low and it helps us keep it going. So take care until the next episode.

Co Host: Alexis: 1:15:21

Bye.

Host: Robin: 1:15:22

Bye