The Politics Guys

On this midweek supporters-exclusive episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) and Ken Katkin (NKU Chase College of Law) continue their ongoing deep-dive series through The Federalist Papers, taking on Federalist Nos. 17, 18, and 19. 
In this cluster of essays, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison tackle a central Anti-Federalist anxiety pushed by writers like Brutus (Robert Yates), Cato, and Patrick Henry: the fear that the proposed Constitution would create an all-powerful, consolidated national government that absorbs state sovereignty and individual liberty. Publius flips this argument on its head, contending that the real threat to the American republic isn’t central tyranny, but internal anarchy, state fragmentation, and weak federal enforcement. Topics discussed include:
Hamilton’s dismissing that a national government will seek to usurp state powers because ambitious national leaders will care about glorious issues such as commerce, finance, negotiations, and war.
The draw of state and local governments for the average person Trey and Ken highlight that even today, over 98% of all court cases in the U.S. remain in state courts. 
Hamilton’s arguments that the true threat is state governments obstructing or interfering with federal law enforcement, anticipating modern disputes like sanctuary cities.
The collaborative authorship and unique drafting history of Federalist 18, where Madison incorporated notes and research compiled by Hamilton into his own previous research studies for the constitutional convention.
How in an era before modern social science, the Framers looked to ancient history as their primary empirical evidence, and what they left out to persuade readers.
The influence of Abbé Mabley on the writing of Madison.
The history and background of The Holy Roman Empire and its distinction with the Roman Empire.
To dive deeper, read more on Trey's Substack.

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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.

On this week’s episode, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) and law professor Ken Katkin (NNKU Chase College of Law) tackle as many major stories as possible for the first week of August, breaking down a pair of controversial new executive orders on citizenship, high-stakes primary results out of Kansas and Michigan, and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance Todd Blanche for U.S. Attorney General.

Trey and Ken begin with the two executive orders signed on August 6, attempting to narrow birthright citizenship following earlier Supreme Court pushback. The first order directs the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to deny visas to pregnant non-citizens to curb "birth tourism". The second order attempts to strip automatic citizenship from specific categories, including children of foreign government employees, those born in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, and children born via commercial birth-tourism transactions. The guys unpack the legal hurdles facing both orders, comparing executive immigration authority against statutory protections like the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, analyzing the precedent of Geduldig v. Aiello (1974), and examining how the 14th Amendment’s "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" clause applies to territorial residents.

Next, they look to Tuesday’s primary results, especially in Kansas and Michigan. Kansas voters resoundingly rejected (61%–39%) a Republican-backed constitutional amendment that would have replaced the state's merit-based judicial nominating commission with direct partisan elections for state Supreme Court justices. Ken and Trey debate whether the vote was driven by post-Dobbs voter mobilization to protect the court’s abortion rulings or a broader conservative skepticism toward the election of judges. 

Affter that, the duo also discuss progressive Abdul El-Sayed ’s narrow victory (48.5% to 47.5%) over establishment favorite Rep. Haley Stevens despite being heavily outspent by outside groups. Trey and Ken discuss what this close result signals about intra-party friction, the debate over "abolishing ICE," and how candidates navigate Middle East policy in Michigan. They also discuss one of the strangest primaries in the cycle: the victory of Thomas J. Smith, a candidate who raised just $1,850, filed his paperwork by hand, and formally suspended his campaign in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. Smith trounced the Trump-endorsed candidate Amir Haneef Hassan. 

Finally, Trey and Ken finish with a discussion of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 12-10 vote to advance Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate floor. The vote came after Republican Senators Cornyn and Tillis secured written assurances from Blanche formally killing a controversial $1.8 billion executive "weaponization fund" intended for presidential payouts. With Senator Bill Cassidy announcing his floor support, Trey and Ken evaluate whether the Senate exercised meaningful oversight over the Justice Department or simply cleared a path for executive confirmation.

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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.

Mike and Jay debate whether Donald Trump has a coherent strategy for the wars in Ukraine and Iran—or is improvising while weapons stockpiles, alliances, and political pressures narrow his options. They examine a major Russia sanctions bill targeting China and India, Ukraine’s possible license to manufacture Patriot interceptors, and whether the United States can bomb Iran into submission. Then they turn to the courts, where Trump’s executive order tightening mail-voting rules faces serious constitutional obstacles, before asking what Anthony Fauci’s private COVID diaries actually prove—and whether Rand Paul’s investigation is legitimate oversight, political theater, or a perjury trap.

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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.

Open Primaries founder John Opdycke joins Mike to argue that America’s primary system gives political parties too much control while shutting out millions of independent voters. They discuss taxpayer-funded closed primaries, top-two elections, whether open systems actually reduce polarization, the threat of strategic “raiding,” and why third parties so rarely gain traction. Opdycke also explains the 2024 defeats of several election-reform measures, the risks of bundling open primaries with ranked-choice voting, opposition from both major parties, and why changing election rules matters only if reformers also build new political coalitions and persuade voters to participate.

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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.

On this midweek supporters-exclusive episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (Oklahoma Christian University) and Justin Holmes (University of Northern Iowa) continue their deep dive into political ideologies by tackling a unique case: religion. Topics covered include:
How religion shapes political behavior
John Rawls and exorcising faith, and can it be, from the public sphere
An overview of the substantive and functional definitions of religion 
Is religion just an add-on to other ideologies?
What, if anything, makes the values of religion different from other values?
Are there true values and how do we exist in a pluralist society if we accept that there are better and worse values?
Become a new monthly supporter on Patreon and get your first month nearly free (90% off) with promo code 0943D, or become a new annual supporter and get an additional 10% off on top of the regular 10% annual supporter discount with promo code 9B50C. These offers are good until the end of July at patreon.com/politicsguys

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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.