The Tyranny of the Minority
Our local Democrat columnist, Mr. Fincke, a few months ago sought to reassure us all that the latest progressive focus – transgenderism – is of no cause for concern. Having successfully redefined societal norms over the past decades in terms of family unit and sexual preference, our liberal friends are now seeking to convince us that our idea of “male” and “female” is hopelessly old-fashioned as well. One only needs to look as far as Facebook (in my opinion, the bane of modern existence), which is broadening our mindset with no less than 56 options for gender identity. Consider that when even the most basic of terminology becomes fluid, it erodes the basic concept behind everything else in our lives. Do you remember Bill Clinton testimony “…it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’, is.”?
The liberal left has been successfully eroding societal norms so that they can segregate us all into special-interest groups – to more easily be pitted against another, using the “fairness” argument. Apparently, any time a person does not get what they want, the situation is deemed unfair and needs to be rectified (usually by striking down some long-held societal norm). They have long-since stopped being concerned with actual discrimination and have now moved on to creating special rights for their constituent groups. It is no longer enough to look at everyone as equals – it is now about recognition, and acceptance/approval, of individuals within these special groups.
How long will Americans let political correctness push them towards a world where there are simply no reliable, time-tested definitions? To you parents out there (even if you consider yourselves liberal-minded), will you really be cowed into accepting the idea that your teenage daughter must be exposed (perhaps literally, in a school bathroom or locker room setting), to boys who simply decided to “identify” as girls that morning?
Is it really wrong to think about this situation as a possibility, and to call it unacceptable? Is it somehow wrong to believe that the rights of the majority need to be respected as well? I don’t think so. It used to be a common belief that each person’s individual rights ended where another person’s nose begins, a principle that government is supposed to defend. Apparently, now those rights extend into the other’s mind (especially if that mind holds conservative beliefs).
The Federal Department of Education, using a method that most of us would term extortion, has threatened to remove funding from school districts that do no knuckle under to their “guideline” for acceptance of transgender students. It does not allow for accommodation, but says you must accept students at their word (since they will allow no empirical method of defining gender).
Mr. Fincke knows this tactic very well – he was instrumental in a lawsuit that forced our local, West Bend School District to “accept” the Gay-Straight Alliance as a sponsored group, not just allow them to meet. I’m sure that, at the first indication of any kind of administrative rule-making over gender identity, he would threaten to go back to Federal Court and get sanctions imposed on the District.
Our Founding Fathers took great pains to set up a system of governance that valued and protected the rights of the minority. Although not always perfect, we have seen it work to correct societal unfairness and real discrimination over the course of time. But lately we have allowed certain groups to accuse and shame the rest of us into eroding traditional values, especially if they are religious-based.
The idea marriage between one man and one woman is narrow-minded, we shouldn’t criticize divorce or unwed motherhood, and now apparently even the idea of two genders is no longer applicable. Without certain permanent touchstones, our society deteriorates into chaos. Until a few years ago, I thought that a person being either “male” or “female” was one of those. Isn’t it about time we stand up and say that some things simply must be definitive and the cultural erosion needs to stop?
Randy Marquardt
Former West Bend School Board member
Vice Chairman of Washington County Republican Party
Very well said
I believe your views are in the minority Mr. Marquardt. The world is changing and your ideals may now be outdated. Most people could care less how a person identifies themselves as long as they are a good person. Unless you know someone who is transgender who disagrees with Mr. Finke’s article, You are just spewing another out-dated, hate-filled opinion.
Wow,
Well, I’ll simply note that Mr. Marquardt’s starting assumption, that raising these issues is intended to segregate us, is either 1) a misinterpretation or 2) a lie. Since I always try to give people I don’t know the benefit of the doubt, we’ll have to assume that Mr. Marquardt has simply misunderstood the content, context, and underlying Constitutional grounds of Mr. Fincke’s discussion.
Mr. Marquardt is not a Constitutional scholar, and Mr. Fincke is.
Maybe that’s the source of confusion.
The purpose of drawing serious citizen attention these issues is, in point of fact, to drag into the sunlight the idiotic, fearful, and — frankly — un-American un-Constitutional segregations that already exist…. so that we can get over them and move on.
What’s most interesting here is that Mr. Marquardt is apparently not over them — and that’s a problem: especially since the rights of these Americans have been guaranteed by the Constitution and confirmed by the Supreme Court. Is it possible he simply doesn’t wish to move on? That these out of date and unsupportable bigotries are preferable for him?
It’s impossible for me to believe that anyone would think so. Which means that there’s some other reason Mr. Marquardt holds these beliefs. I am unable to imagine, however, what they could be.
Now, I know he doesn’t like being reminded that we live in the 21 Century: he and his clique on the school board have already cost the tax payers 10s of thousands of dollars (when they never had a prayer of winning) trying to fight a bunch of kids in the high school who wanted to form a GSA (shouldn’t we ask for our badly spent money back?); and they’ve fought against scientifically grounded and common-sensical sex-ed programs that have been proven (for decades now) to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies; and, as far as I can tell, they continue to champion the view that evolution is a scientific conspiracy (along with global warming and the whackadoodle view that the earth orbits the sun). I’m not able to make any more sense of these positions than his position about bathrooms — or the need to take a position about bathrooms.
The remainder of this flapdoodle is not much more than a sack of take-out junkfood memes that remind us that, after about age 20, we’re too smart to eat *nothing* but bacon-cheeseburgers (I mean I *love* bacon cheeseburgers, but I had to give them up as a main part of my diet when I became, you know, an adult).
In a nutshell, the greatest danger to our future are those who are stuck, like fossils, in our past. Let’s not go back to a country where fear was our guiding principle.
Sorry to disagree so strongly but this isn’t funny anymore. The rule of law — as determined by both Constitution and a majority Conservative Supreme Court — says that Mr. Marquardt is wrong on all points.
So in essence, Mr. Marquardt, a minority person or group asserting their Constitutional rights represent a tyrannical stand to you? I would suggest a basic civics class may be in order. Is it too much to expect that a transgendered individual be treated as, you know, a person?!
Randy,
You can cast your vote against this tyranny
This November .
You neglected to mention that the District was advised they would lose the lawsuit to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars nor the fact that you cast the approving vote ( one you should be proud of )
I know that you yearn for the traditional days when white men made all the rules but that is no longer the country we live in .
Laws are meant to eliminate discrimination of any kind and often will not meet with your approval .
You’ve had it your way for many years .
City residents chose to go another way in the last school board election. They chose to oust the Board President who bragged that he was the leading vote getter in his previous runs, who backed unconditionally a Suoerintendant who had lost the communities trust .
That also is the America you live in .
I will live in and work through that America while you sit and brood about how the left and the homosexual and now the transgendered attempt to change the throwback to the 50’s
America you yearn for .
It’s gone , and unless you have a time machine, you need to hop on for the ride
Mark Maley
Interesting that you should talk about empiricism here. I’d like to hear your empirical evidence that all these things you’re concerned about are indeed eroding society. Or perhaps all this fuss is just doomsaying. 🙂
If you truly believe that the liberal left is attempting to fragment society in order to pit us against each other, your only defense against this move is universal respect and acceptance of your fellow human beings. Looks like you have some practicing to do.
I find a couple things shocking here.
#1 Anyone would disagree with what Mr. Marquardt wrote.
#2 Anyone would feel strongly enough about their wrong opinions to post those opinions here.
What I find funny is that this lbgtxyzabq movement has even been acknowledged. There is not a single inilectual argument that any civil rights were being violated. There were no discriminating laws to begin with. The fact that a negligable in size, group of people chooses to resent their dna us now a burden on all of us. This is a mental illness. Gender dysphoria. We wouldn’t tell someone with paranoid schizophrenia that their hallucinations are real, why are we catering to this? Like i said. “Get with the times” is not an inilectual argument, nor have I heard one since the beginning of this joke. Reputable psychologogists do not support transgender transitions, why should we? Especially when the only arguments made are incoherent and emotional. There is nothing in the Constitution to stop people from mutilating their bodies, but there is also nothing that would require us to cater to this or accept these ridiculous new laws. Nobody should be discriminated against, but asking someone to acknowledge their biological sex is not discrimination. To say otherwise is absolutely asinine.