Obama Bullying Redskins into Name Change

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Political Correctness has now reached a point in America where if the government leadership thinks your freedom of speech is rude, they can take it away from you. . . even after generations of a society just fine with the Washington Redskins name, since the liberal left has created a ridiculous attack against it, they have decided the government can strip the team of their name by taking away the patent and trademark.

Political Correctness by a minority of people because they were offended.  Think about this.  The Washington Redskins ownership is being told what they can and can’t do with their private property.  The government, without due process, without any legal process involved, just because they decided to, has eliminated the private property rights of the ownership group that owns the Washington Redskins.  They are using authoritarianism to force their will on the private sector.  They are using totalitarian power to force the private sector to behave in the way they demand, and because the ownership of the Washington Redskins would not play ball, they are bullying them into submission through big government dictatorial actions without using the legal system, without consulting the people’s representation in Congress, and without any regards to the protection of private property by the United States Constitution.

The Patent and Trademark Office simply eliminated the right of the Redskins to own their trademark by order of the big government tyrants of the Obama regime.  The Redskins no longer own their name.  They don’t have the right to because a small group of people claimed they are offended – and I guarantee their rage is politically motivated.  It isn’t about a name.  It is all about an agenda.

How long before the next private business is targeted?  How long before this tyranny completes the cycle, and consolidates all power in the executive branch?

The precedence goes deeper than just making a few people cheer because the mean old racist name is being forced into being changed.  This is yet another example of executive fiat, and an example they can later use as precedent.  And the slaughter is not finished.  Leftism is ravenous.  Once they get one, they will begin swarming around all other names of teams they consider offensive.  Where does it stop?

If you don’t bake a cake for homosexuals, it’s offensive so the government will force you to bake the cake, or else lose your business.  If you don’t change the name of your business, the government will force you to change the name of your business.  How long before, if you read the Bible while waiting for the next customer at your place of business, because that Bible offended someone, you will have to keep that Bible in a safe and out of sight by government decree?  Sound impossible?  Your individual rights means nothing to these people.  It is all about an agenda, and destroying anything they deem a danger to their lust for power.

Resistance is futile.

Your private property rights and individual rights are being crushed at will by the whim of a consolidated, centralized, coercive government – and people are cheering the action.  And if they are going to take away private property rights like this, right to free speech is not too far behind.

This is not the end.  They smell blood in the water, and now they will believe they have an opportunity here.  The attack on our rights is only beginning.  They expect the Redskins to sit there and say nothing as the authoritarian government takes their private property rights away from them – while the liberal left places the next target in their sights.
 
The people who approve of this don’t get it.  They have not been targeted, yet.  They don’t see the removal of another’s freedoms as a threat to their own freedoms.

Understand something else.  The Patent and Trademark Office, according to Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution is a congressional authority, not an executive one.  But I guarantee you this was Obama, this was Obama without the consent of Congress.  The legislature is irrelevant to this man.  The American People is irrelevant to this man.  All of the madness going on is coming from the executive branch, and that means it is coming from Barack Obama.

What’s next?  Will the IRS go after the Redskins next?  Guess what, Washington Redskins, you are going to join the Tea Party as a target by Obama’s IRS.

Think about this.  The name of a private business has been criminalized by the federal government.  Language is a criminal offense.  If someone is offended, it opens you up to being attacked and forced into compliance by the government.  Your private property rights are at risk, without any kind of due process, because someone was offended, and because Obama said so.

The Patent and Trademark Office has stripped ownership rights of the trademark from the Washington Redskins.  It does not require them to change their name, but it is a way of bullying them into doing so. They are not the legal owners of the trademark, anymore. Anybody can market it, anybody can use it, anybody can make money off of it. They don’t have exclusive ownership rights. They don’t get the profits from the sale of licensed merchandise. The thinking is that it will force the team to change their name.

The Washington Redskins have been told by the bullies of the Obama administration that they no longer own their trademark because it’s offensive. Tough. Too bad.  They don’t own it, they don’t have have exclusive rights to it, and if they want things to return to what they want for business, they will have to change the name of the team.

I suggest the Washington Tea Party.  The battle cry in the stands can be “Don’t Tread on Me!”  Would Obama force that to change, too?  It would offensive to him, and his cronies, for sure.

In the end, this is all about power.  This is Obama saying, “I can do whatever I want, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.  Nobody is safe.  Not conservatives, not wedding cake bakers, not wedding photographers, not the Tea Party, not a football team with a name that someone considers offensive.

I wonder if the owner of the Redskins was a large Democrat Party donor, if they would have reconsidered going after him?

The owner, Snyder, however, is a Republican.  He’s not hip with the tyranny of the Democrat Party.  ”I’m never changing this name,” he said. “Never.”

This is what happens when you tell a power-hungry dictator “never.”

Comply, or be bullied into compliance.  Do what the government orders you to, even if it is your personal freedoms, or be forced into compliance.

That is the message.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Redskins Patent Office decision cheered by lawmakers as ‘landmark’ – Washington Post

Redskins lost trademark, Harry Reid says team will be ‘forced’ to change name – Washington Examiner