Sports are mostly mindless entertainment. Displays of unusual skill are the main redeeming quality. Rodeo is different. It combines skill with physical courage and an inspiring display of the triumph of mankind over wild nature through sheer toughness and will power. Rodeo represents the spirit of the American West. Liberals want to ban it:

In California, there is a growing movement to ban — or seriously curtail — these kinds of performances. …

In Los Angeles, the City Council is poised to vote on legislation that would curtail, if not eliminate, rodeo events within the city.

Alameda County (home of leftist strongholds Oakland and Berkeley) has already banned wild cow milking and mutton busting. The latter is a great way for kids to take part in rodeo without getting hurt.

The restrictions have spread throughout California and beyond:

San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano and Pasadena already have restrictions on rodeos, as do Pittsburgh, Leesburg, Va., and Fort Wayne, Ind.

Other states, towns, counties and countries have bans on specific events, such as the county of Baltimore, which prohibits calf roping…

This attack on a disfavored aspect of American culture is justified by pious concern for the welfare of animals. But as chief executive and commissioner of the Professional Bull Riders Sean Gleason observes,

“[I]f animal rights activists were successful in shutting down bull riding — through this argument that there’s some kind of torture that doesn’t exist — I assure you these animals have zero purpose and they’d be turned into hamburger within a week.”

This isn’t about cattle, but about reducing us to cattle as part of the Culture War. As California Political Review notes,

The Western lifestyle is also about self reliance, freedom and private actions, without government interference.

Only when toughness, independence, and masculinity have been abolished can progressives achieve their conception of utopia. In the meantime, whatever is worth having, they will take away from you with ostentatious self-righteousness, despising you for wanting to keep it.

On a tip from Dragon’s Lair.

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