Imagine there’s no more athletic competition. It isn’t hard to do. No more girls whining about boys beating them in their sporting events. Liberals wouldn’t have to explain it away like Brookline, NH Democrat Town Committee Chair Robert Rushton.
After I reported on the federal Title IX complaint filed by Selina Soule, one of our readers shared that post on a Brookline New Hampshire (closed group) Facebook page. Democrat Town Committee Chair Robert Rushton had some thoughts and his solution (pdf of complete remarks from Facebook) which begs to be fisked.
Perhaps the problem is less with transgender competition than with the notion of sports competition itself.
Boys being girls is clearly more important to this Democrat than the benefits of athletics and competition in sports for young women. The list of benefits is long and positive. But you can’t help how you were born. Some boys will always be better at “girls” sports.
So physical competition between XX and XY may hold an advantage for XY. But so do other characteristics. Short people of either sex can’t run as fast as tall people. Those who are naturally slim can’t lift as much weight as those with more muscle mass. Training will improve anyone’s capabilities, but one’s body sets a hard limit on what is possible. Yet we don’t see short people suing because they can’t win races. Why not?
Why not? The left has not converted being tall into a cultural weapon to advance a separate political agenda.
Maybe the Democrat party should put a hard limit on its political and cultural agenda. Girls wouldn’t have to sue Schools over Title IX for allowing boys to win girls sporting events. And we could keep all the benefits of sports and competition for young women, (and boys) intact.
It may be time to reevaluate our attitudes toward it. De-emphasize the competition aspects and promote the idea that we all should be as physically capable as our bodies will support.
Robert is clearly smitten with the everyone gets a trophy narrative. Wait, End Trophies Now!
No trophies. No sports scholarships. No outrageous salaries for the professional athletes in the arena. Replace those with a general appreciation for those who strive to be their best in all aspects of their lives. We don’t need the Colosseum any more. After a couple of thousand years of development, we should be better than that.
I don’t have the numbers, but I’d bet that sports scholarships are one of the leading paths to good colleges for kids and families that might not otherwise have access. I know, Democrats want to socialize the cost of higher education, make it “free.” Like Public school. The elites get good schools and everyone else gets crap.
As for the salaries of professional athletes, professional sports are first and foremost, entertainment. The value of the performance justifies the cost of entry (as a spectator) and that, in turn, elevates the value of the performers to team owners.
Democrats could solve that inequality by putting a cap on salaries for all sports. Socialize it like education. Fix ticket prices, venue locations, and sizes, all of it. No one deserves that much money, right? Then tax that at 90%. The problem solves itself.
Just like it does with all of the Democrat’s other tax and regulation prescriptions. Jobs, economic growth, opportunity, individual liberty, all killed in the womb (so to speak) by the idea that no one deserves something because we’ll never all be the same. Better to put everyone in Mao suits and let the experts (not sure how we could have any of those, seems so unfair) decide everything for us.