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The Politics Guys

Trans Athletes, Housing Gimmicks, and Weaponizing Government

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

Politics, News

4.4 • 783 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike and Michael open with a deep dive into the Supreme Court cases involving Idaho and West Virginia bans on transgender girls participating in girls’ sports, unpacking why the Court is likely to uphold the laws while sharply distinguishing between what may be legally permissible and what constitutes sound or humane policy. Mike emphasizes administratability, original legislative meaning in Title IX, and the unavoidable reality that someone loses under any legal rule, while Michael argues the Court is ducking meaningful scrutiny, endorsing blanket exclusions, and turning vulnerable kids into symbolic casualties of a broader culture war. Next, the guys turn to housing affordability and the Trump administration’s proposals, including banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes and pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy massive amounts of mortgage bonds. Mike argues that both ideas ultimately protect current homeowners while leaving prices high, while Michael situates the moves in Trump’s broader pattern of populist gimmicks that acknowledge real problems but avoid the politically painful solution of dramatically expanding housing supply. After that, they revisit the “Don’t Obey Unlawful Orders” video fallout, focusing on the administration’s actions against Senator Mark Kelly and Senator Slotkin. Michael frames the investigations as straightforward weaponization of government, where the process itself becomes punishment, while Mike stresses the long-term danger of normalizing this logic, warning that even conservatives should fear the precedent it sets for democratic stability and the rule of law. The Politics Guys on Facebook | X Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys. The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:23.3

Sign up for your ÂŁ1 per month trial at Shopify.com.

0:27.2

com.com.

0:30.1

Atheists, agnostics, long-haired widows, short-haired widows, vandal, oolagullagos.

0:35.3

Love the government, hug the government, hug the government, love, the government, hug the government, love the government, hug the government, love the government, hug the government, love the government, hug the government.

0:42.1

Welcome to the politics, guys, a place for bipartisan, rational, and civil debate on American politics and policy.

0:48.7

I'm Northern Kentucky University political scientist Michael Baranowski.

0:52.3

I'm joined today by political scientist Michael Levy.

0:55.1

Hey, Michael.

0:56.0

Hey, Mike.

0:56.6

How are you doing?

0:57.5

I'm doing okay.

0:59.0

You know, as usual, there were a bunch of things that we didn't get to on the weekend

1:05.2

show because so much was happening so quickly.

1:09.1

And thankfully, we have this middle week show to talk about a number of these

1:12.8

other things that I think were important, but maybe came a little bit under the radar in what was a

1:17.7

huge newsweek last week. And why don't we start with the Supreme Court? On January 13th, the court

1:25.6

heard two cases concerning whether transgender females have a right to play on women's sports teams.

1:32.0

And the states in this case, Idaho and West Virginia, their argument is that their respective laws banning this participation should stand, arguing that it's been longed the case that states can separate sports by biological

1:46.9

sex due to reasons that relate to fairness, safety, and what you might call administratability.

1:53.8

Now, the challengers here claim that Title IX, which prevents sex discrimination within educational

1:59.6

institutions that receive federal funds,

...

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