Liberal Lessons on the Redskins (and the Like)

Well, what do you know? Again ignoring long-standing history, scientific data, and plain common sense, American liberals got a federal judge to help them further their totalitarian agenda.

Yesterday, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia upheld the ruling of an administrative appeal board and ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the registration of the trademark of “the NFL team located in Washington, D.C.” (Get used to such a phrase, as liberals will now be even more emboldened to ignore what has been for nearly a century. Of course, as we saw on marriage, liberals are quite adept at ignoring what has existed for centuries.) Until the appeals are exhausted, the Redskins can continue to use and protect their decades-old trademark.

Conservatives across America could learn something from liberals in this battle. First of all, many liberals, especially those in the media and politics (All 50 U.S. Senators who signed the letter sent to The New York Times—which, of course, got it first—and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, urging a change in the team’s name, were democrats.), continue to oppose fervently the “Redskins” name in spite of its overwhelming popularity.

There’s almost nothing in America as popular as the name “Redskins.” Hillary would probably rename her first grandchild “Monica” if she could only poll as popular as “Redskins.” As I noted on this same nonsense last year, when it comes to public opinion on this issue, virtually every poll ever taken shows overwhelming support for the Redskins name. Even in the most liberal place in the country, Washington D.C.—which happens to be the home city for the team—two-thirds polled say the team’s name should not change.

What’s more, a huge majority of Native Americans also supports the name. In late 2013, CBS Sports in D.C. reported on a poll that revealed 90% support for the Redskins name among Native Americans. In addition, dozens of American high schools use “Redskins” as their mascot. Most telling is the fact that, in almost all of these high schools, the majority of the students are Native American.

Nevertheless, the media and liberal politicians are undeterred and continue with the “change the Redskins” meme. We see the same thing on global warming. As a political issue, global warming—or climate change, or whatever the latest liberal spin is—has long been at or near the bottom of nearly any list of political issues put before Americans. This year’s Pew Public Policy Priorities Poll (say that five times fast!) has global warming second from the bottom.

In spite of this, liberals continue to wage war on fossil fuels and attempt to make (and sometimes succeed at making) public policy and pass legislation rooted in the myth that mankind is warming the planet. They make movies, documentaries, and television commercials that paint myth as fact. Billions and billions of dollars are spent, and billions more remain on the line.

You have to hand it to liberals. Whatever perverse morality seems to guide them at the moment (it often changes), as long as there’s not much of a political price to pay (which the media almost always helps in that way), they stick to their guns—well, they stick to their pet political issues.

If only republicans in Washington would show the same kind of fight on immigration, marriage, and the like. If the judge had ruled in favor of the Redskins, do you think liberals would have ceased their campaign in the matter? What did the marriage debate teach us? For years the conservative position was the popular one, and it showed in the polling and at the ballot box. Did this stop liberals?

As I’ve also noted before, because their moral demands are few, and because for decades now they’ve had a media and an education system that supports them at nearly every turn, politics is much easier for liberals. Thus, conservatives must always out-work liberals in the political realm. Whether we seem to be working with the lead, or from behind, conservatives must stick to our principles and fight. Whether at home, at school, at church, in the media, in the boardroom, in the courtroom, in the legislature, and so on, uncompromising (hear me, Chris Christy) conservatives are needed.

Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com