Competition
Peg on Feb 29 2008 at 9:35 am | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Education, Peg's Page
Competition plays a large role in much of my life. As a tournament bridge player, competition is the name of the game. The better you do, the more you rate to win. The more you do to learn, improve your game and secure superior partners and teammates, the higher you climb.
As a Realtor, it’s much the same. If I deliver top-notch products and services to my clients, then I rate to prosper with my business. If I fail to improve, connect and listen to the needs of my clients, then I am unlikely to do as well as the next guy.
Competition is great. Most people enjoy doing well - but you cannot unless you work hard and try your best. Learning, improving, growing …. All of us should strive to include this in our lives.
Why, then, is it that so many Democrats seem to spurn competition?
The Democratic Party has become the anti-competition party.
It’s true in education where Democrats, with their slavish devotion to teachers unions, oppose vouchers even for constituencies they pretend to champion such as minorities and the disadvantaged. Vouchers would force public schools into competition.
It’s true with immigration, where many Democrats advance the phony argument that illegal immigrants displace U.S. workers by lowering wages. For low-skilled workers who refuse to get more skills or learn a new trade, illegal immigrants amount to competition.
And it’s certainly true in the area of trade, where Democrats do the bidding of organized labor by fighting trade agreements and advocating protectionism. Trade, by its very nature, encourages competition by opening up markets across borders and seas.
This rejection of competition I believe relates to the Democrats’ embracing of equality. Don’t get me wrong; I am someone who strongly believes in equality. But - equality should be a matter of equal opportunities, and equal justice before the law. What each of use chooses to do with those opportunities can vary widely among us - just as our abilities, talents, strengths and weaknesses vary dramatically.
Total equality is a fiction. It is impossible to make the human condition the same for everyone, irrespective of what steps are taken.
Nor, as explained above, should we really want to do so. It is competition and variance that causes us to improve and yearn for something better.
When President Clinton worked to get the passage of NAFTA, I applauded him. More free trade was a win-win situation for the world.
Why do the Democrats of today - and in particular, President Clinton’s wife - reject it today?
Why do they not wish to compete and search for new heights and achieve new goals?
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