Politics & Power Quote by Jim Sensenbrenner

Sensenbrenner’s line isn’t really about steroids; it’s about who gets to narrate American merit. By framing doping as something athletes have “taught…by example,” he recasts a private choice as a public curriculum, turning muscle chemistry into moral pedagogy. The target is as much cultural authority as it is pharmacology: athletes, in his telling, have become unlicensed teachers shaping “young Americans,” a phrase that smuggles in parental anxiety and national stakes. It’s classic political leverage: protect the kids, and you can justify almost any crackdown.

The absolutism does the heavy lifting. “The only way to succeed” is plainly overstated, but that’s the point: exaggeration creates urgency, and urgency creates room for legislation, hearings, and punishment. “Wrongly taught” also implies there is a right lesson sports should impart - discipline, fair play, grit - a civic catechism that conveniently aligns with the law-and-order posture politicians can sell. The subtext is that celebrity culture has outgrown traditional gatekeepers; Congress steps in as the stern adult.

Context matters: Sensenbrenner rose as a prominent House Republican and became a visible figure during the 2000s steroid panic, when MLB and other leagues were dragged into televised reckonings. Those hearings weren’t just about cleaning up games; they were about reasserting institutional control over industries that looked self-policing and failing. The quote taps a deep American tension: we worship winners, then demand they embody virtue, and when they don’t, we call it a crisis of youth rather than a symptom of the incentives we built.