The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Gov. Janet Mills Doesn’t Know It Yet, But She’s an ‘Insurrectionist’

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Is Gov. Janet Mills of Maine an ‘Neo-Confederate’? Yes, and “she is taking states’ rights to the extreme,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” After refusing to comply with a Trump administration order banning men from competing in women’s high school sports, the Department of Justice launched a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education for failing to protect women in women’s sports, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday. “Janet Mills may not know it, but she's an insurrectionist. She's a neo-Confederate. She is taking states' rights to the extreme. Rather than saying, ‘I oppose the federal government. I will go to court to stop you. But if I lose, I will comply because the states are subordinate to the federal’ —she's not doing that. She's right in the spirit of the old Confederacy… “I can cite you chapter and verse from the poems of Catullus to the novels of ‘Satyricon,’ of Petronius, ‘The Satyricon,’ of men who dress up like women. Both as transvestites who are still, I guess you'd say heterosexual, but they have a fetish to wear women's clothes or that who really want to be women. In the case of a poem or two, they castrate themselves. It's found in ancient history.   “And statistically, if you go back before this controversy happened, it was a very small number of the population. About less than 1% identified as transgendered or transsexual. Then it became, in the last decade, the next civil rights frontier. And all of a sudden, we had universities where students were polled at 10% or 20% or 30%, thought they might want to transition. It became almost a cult following.”   👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1…   👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/victordavishanson7273…   👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com    The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. I want to wait into a very controversial topic. I want to be very careful. Donald Trump issued an executive order saying that only biological women that remain women compete in women's sports. Janet Mills, the governor of Maine, in the White House, said she was going to resist that. And she's resisting. Janet Mills may not know it, but she's an insurrectionist.

She's a neo-Confederate. She is taking states' rights to the extreme. And in the 1850s, the antebell himself said, we're not going to listen to the federal government. The federal government said, then you're an insurrectionary moat, and we know what happened. Rather than saying, I oppose the federal government, I will go to court to stop you.

But if I lose, I will comply because the states are subordinate to the federal. She's not doing that. She's right in the spirit of the old Confederacy. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. I want to wait into a very controversial topic. I want to be very careful.

It's the issue whether biological men who have transitioned to the female gender should compete in male sports and what is the reaction of those who say they should versus the federal government under Trump's executive orders that said it's not fair to women. And the Locus Classicus or the state is the best. example is now Janet Mills, the governor of Maine, in the White House, said she was going to resist that. Donald Trump issued an executive order saying that all sports programs in the public sphere have to make sure that only biological women that remain women compete in women's sports, and the same as for male sports.

And she's resisting. This and is the California legislature, and apparently Gavin Newsom, and are a lot of blue states. There's two fundamental issues we should all watch here. Number one, do states have the right to resist the federal government? Donald Trump says they don't, and he has threatened to cut off massive federal funds to Maine, which would be devastating to the economy, to force her. to comply with federal law. Note that when Joe Biden issued executive orders, if people on the right oppose them, they went to court. If they lost, they followed it. But this is a neo-confederate

idea that goes back to 1832 with South Carolina and tariffs. And in the 1850s in the South, when the antebellum self said, we're not going to listen to the federal government. The federal government said, then you're an insurrectionary mode, and we know what happened. We have 600 sanctuary jurisdictions the United States on matters of illegal immigration, where they say, we're not going to turn over illegal aliens that have committed a crime on our hell. We're not going to turn them over to the immigration and custom enforcement. The same issue now with trans. Janet Mills may not know it, but she's an insurrectionist. She's a neo-confederate. She is taking states rights to the extreme. Rather than saying, I oppose the federal government, I will go to court

to stop you, but if I lose, I will comply because the states are subordinate to the federal. She's not doing that. She's right in the spirit of the old Confederacy. The other issue, very importantly, is the trans issue itself, and I want to be very careful. Transsexualism, transgenderism, is an ancient phenomenon. It appears throughout the medieval world, it appears in late antiquity, it appears in early antiquity. I can cite you chapter and verse from the poems of Catullus to the novels of satiricon, of Petronius of Satiricon, of men who dress up like women, both as transvestites, who are still, I guess you'd say heterosexual, but they have a fetish to wear women's clothes, or that who will he want to be women? In the case of a poem or two,

they castrate themselves. It's found in ancient history. And statistically, if you go back before this controversy happened, it was a very small number of the population, about less than 1% identified as transgendered or transsexual. Then it became, in the last decade, the next civil rights frontier, and all of a sudden we had universities where students were polled that 10 or 20 or 30% thought they might want to transition. It became almost a cult following. But in the process, we did something that no one ever imagined. People on the left side of the spectrum, the liberal side, had always argued that under Title IX,

women should get the same amount of support for their sports as men do, even if they didn't make the same amount of revenue in football, basketball, et cetera. And America came over to that position, slow, but maybe begrudgingly, but they accepted it. And they promoted women's sports, and it was successful. And now biological males with a muscular skeletal framework have enormous physical advantages over females. We all know that. And they are systematically undermining women's sports as a civil rights issue. And the left doesn't know what to do because it's also an anti-feminist, anti-woman issue.

But there's another thing to think about. There is transition or transsexual males. These are people born female with all the characteristics muscular skeletal of females, of women, and they then either have operations or hormone treatments or both and become men. And guess what? When they compete in sports, they don't do very well. In other words, transgendered men cannot beat biological men, which brings up the issue. If you're transgendered, isn't there still a difference biologically?

hormonally from people born into that sex? In other words, if women transition to males and they cannot beat biological males, why do we keep insisting that males who transition as women are no different than biological women? When in fact, we know they are, they know they are, and Donald Trump has tried to address this issue, both in purposes of honesty and fairness and equality for women. And these state governors and legislatures that are resisting him are really breaking the federal law, but more importantly, they're echoing and they're resonating the old Confederacy.

Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be noticed. notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.