Megan Rapinoe, star forward for the women's U.S. national soccer team, seems to hate the world.  She goes around with a scowl permanently etched into her weathered face.  Though an outstanding soccer player, Megs has it in her head that she's getting cheated, and that the cheater is Donald Trump.  So she refuses to go to the White House if the team wins the women's World Cup.

Trump then extended an invitation to the team whether they win or lose, and of course, Megan took it with ill grace.  The girl has no graces, only grimaces.  Megan, like all liberal females, holds Trump personally accountable for every unfun thing that ever happened in her life or anybody else's life.  Despite her extraordinary skill on the field, Megan's about as ordinary a liberal as it's possible to be.

Megan and others who play women's soccer (and women's basketball, and any other sport that both men and women play professionally) says the women are as good as the men and should be paid at the same levels to reflect it.  There are serious flaws in that reasoning.

First, the women are not as good as the men.  Not as quick, not as fast, not as athletic, not as tough.  In the rough game of soccer, that adds up to not as good.  I was reminded of this by a friend who put me on to a 2016 article about the Australian women's national team losing to a team of 15-year-old high school boys.  And not just losing, but losing 7-0.  In elite soccer, 1-0 is a pretty normal score.  Seven-zero is more than embarrassment; it's humiliation.

Second, not-as-good impacts ticket sales.  While some of us will watch most any soccer match because we just love the game, most have no interest in almost-as-good.  In sports, the best competition takes place at the highest levels of excellence, and that's what fans want to see.  Economics drives pro sports as it does most everything else.

Megan Rapinoe's churlishness merely reflects the tantrum mentality common to liberals in this day and age.  They demand that we love them even if they aren't lovable, that we speak of them in the awed tones of discussions of Ronaldo or Messi, that we pay them at levels that the economics of the women's game doesn't support.

Megan, it isn't Donald Trump's fault you were born in a female body.  It isn't your fault, either.  It's just the way things are.  It's time you accepted the world, yourself, and your lot as they are and quit raging against nature.  The rest of us have had to do that, and we didn't get paid to do it, either in money or acclaim or fan reverence.  You actually have it pretty good.  Appreciate it, and spare us this spoiled-brat permanent bad temper.

In short: Grow up.