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

Liberals Wage War on the Redskins

After the regime issued its latest diktat Wednesday via a three-judge panel at the Patent and Trademark Office, which ruled 2-1 to withdraw trademark protection for the Washington Redskins, Rush Limbaugh was pretty much spot-on when he noted, “This is Barack Obama.”

Actually, this goes beyond Obama (as the Patent and Trademark Office has tried this before). This is liberalism. This is what happens when liberals have power. Take note of those who cheered the decision: “The writing is on the wall,” said a jubilant Harry Reid. He notably added that, “The name will change and justice will be done…”  

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell said, “We're so excited to know that finally people are recognizing that this issue can no longer be a business case for the NFL to use this patent.” What the Democrats should be excited about is that, for however brief a period of time, they don’t have to answer questions about Iraq, Benghazi, the IRS, an illegal immigrant invasion, and the like.

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, Native Americans in general support the name. Late last year, 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. Kingston High School in Oklahoma—where about 58% of the student body is Native American—has used the Redskins name for over a century. Speaking of Oklahoma, the word itself is derived from Choctaw words that translate “red people.”

Yet liberals, as they so often do, insist that this is a shameless act of racism by one of the most prominent sports teams in the U.S. As is typical with so many things liberal, the cries of “racism” defy common sense. What racist (or supposed racist) would want to use a derisive term of a people they despise as their mascot or symbol for something in which they take great pride? Eighty years ago can you imagine the KKK organizing a softball team and using the n-word for their team name?

As the Wall Street Journal smartly pointed out, “If names were meant to convey dislike—of, say, Vikings, Yankees or the Irish—then Redskins owner Dan Snyder would have converted to the Washington Harry Reids years ago.”

My high school alma mater uses “Warriors” as our mascot. I have more than a few yearbooks that are adorned with a handsome and regal Native American “Warrior.” My 27-year-old letterman’s jacket has the following patch on the shoulder of the right sleeve:

For years I wore it proudly, never imagining that the Warrior stood for anything other than something mighty, fierce, and brave. I suppose I must now pay reparations for the harm that my faux leather sleeves have inflicted on our culture.

The most telling thing about this brazen act of authoritarianism is that liberals actually perceive this as a moral issue. USA Today reported on the patent ruling and made reference to the Mid-Atlantic Church of Christ’s decision to boycott the Redskins as a “moral issue.” After the ruling, the “Change the Mascot” campaign issued a statement saying “If the most basic sense of morality, decency and civility has not yet convinced the Washington team and the NFL to stop using this hateful slur, then hopefully today’s patent ruling will…”

Earlier this year Think Progress, a liberal blog, reported on a poll by Public Policy Polling, a liberal polling organization, which revealed that 71% of Americans don’t want the Redskins to change their name. Unable to argue with such support, Think Progress decided to lecture its readers rhetorically, asking, “Does it really matter that a majority of Americans don’t consider the name offensive? Given our country’s history, is public opinion really the way we want to settle questions of offense or injustice on racial and ethnic grounds?”

In April of this year, Harry Reid took to the Senate floor and told Redskins owner Daniel Snyder that he should “do what is morally right” and change the name. All of a sudden the Democrats actually want to appeal to justice and a moral standard on an issue rather than public opinion, or the courts, or a board of liberal lackeys.

All one needs to know is that the moral code employed by liberals in this matter is the same one that has allowed for the slaughter of tens-of-millions of Americans in their mothers’ wombs, that tells us that homosexual sex is good and right, that a redefinition of the sacred institution of marriage is necessary and just, that it is immoral to refer to someone born with testicles as a man, that guns are immoral, and that it is “compassionate” to confiscate forcibly the wealth of one and give it to another. So yes, please, let us actually debate the morality and the justness of “Redskins” and all of these matters. Let us each clearly cast our moral standards before the American people, the courts, and most importantly, the Creator and see where we stand.

(See this column on American Thinker.)

Copyright 2014, Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason

Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com