The White House said the decision to cancel the Washington Redskins’ trademark registrations was made by an independent tribunal, but that hasn’t stopped many on the right to link the ruling to the tyrannical arm of Barack Obama they’ve warned about for years.
A mere hour after the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced the cancellation of six of the team’s trademark registrations because “they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered,” RedState.com editor Erick Erickson already knew who was really behind the decision.
Erickson pinned the blame on “a bunch of overeducated white guys who cry during ‘Love Actually'” and “a class of men who pee sitting down” — two effete, easily aggrieved constituencies who apparently have some clout with Obama in charge.
“The lesson here is that guilty feeling white liberals are a threat to freedom and, in Barack Obama’s America, the key to survive is to not appear on the radar of in Washington, D.C,” Erickson wrote. “Once Washington’s elite know of your existence and you do not behave like them, they will turn the power of government in your direction.”
Conservative shock jock Rush Limbaugh also said that Obama’s fingerprints are all over the decision. Limbaugh faulted political reporters for failing to acknowledge the President’s complicity in the “tyranny.”
“This is not the Patent and Trademark Office. This is Barack Obama,” Limbaugh said Wednesday. “One of the things in reporting out of Washington that has happened during this administration — this is the Executive Branch. All this stuff is coming out of the Executive Branch. All of this, well, tyranny, it’s all coming from the Executive Branch. And Obama owns the Executive Branch. He is the Executive Branch. But yet, it’s never reported that way.”
“Barack Obama’s administration did this!” he added.
Limbaugh can take solace in conservative media’s coverage.
Right-wing blogger Matt Barber eschewed subtlety with his own reporting on the Patent and Trademark Office ruling.
“Whether or not you believe the Redskins should change its team name, you should be concerned by this troubling development,” Barber wrote. “It’s a harbinger of things to come. The American free market and private enterprise are no longer free nor private. Liberty is under threat as never before. Here’s to the good ol’ U.S.A.! We’ve officially become an Obamanation.”
Independent Journal Review’s Kyle Becker also weighed-in on what he described as a “strange, politically vindictive, and probably illegal turn-of-events.”
“This is how the Obama administration rolls,” Becker wrote.
Becker also invoked one of the most popular conservative memes in the Obama era.
“The timing of this move is pretty convenient for the president and is a classic example of both the distraction politics this administration is good for and the lack of seriousness of his administration,” Becker wrote.
Other conservatives criticized Obama for the decision via Twitter.
Obama’s admin. literally just decided to cancel the trademark to the Redskins because he doesn’t like the name. http://t.co/LaJl37cNEi
— Eli Rubenstein (@EliRubenstein) June 18, 2014
How Obama uses the govt to push progressive agenda: Redskins trademark canceled by feds http://t.co/OjMKdEZIOC
— Anita MonCrief (@anitamoncrief) June 18, 2014
I was just felt up by the #TSA again but by all means Obama admin, concern yourselves with professional sports team names. #Redskins
— Whitney Neal (@WhitneyNeal) June 18, 2014
Amanda Carpenter, a speechwriter for Sen. Ted Cruz, tried to link Obama’s party to the decision. Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have been extremely critical of the team name — not to mention the franchise’s owner, Daniel Snyder — in recent months.
Reminder–Senate Democrats were pushing for Redskins name change. Dems resorted to bureaucratic tyranny to get their way
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) June 18, 2014
Dems pushed to remove Redskins name, pushed to repeal 1st Amendment. Can they be any clearer how anti-free speech they are? #speechpolice
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) June 18, 2014
Maybe the Patent Office should remove trademark to Lucky Charms because it’s offensive to Irish Americans. #notreally
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) June 18, 2014
At his final daily press briefing as White House press secretary on Wednesday, Jay Carney said that the decision was made by “an independent administrative tribunal,” although he said Obama supports a name change for the Redskins.
Obama’s previous comments on the matter are likely fueling the right’s theories on the trademark ruling. In an interview last year, he said he’d “think about changing” the team’s name because it offends “a sizable group of people.”
“I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things,” Obama said in October.
Yes, Obama did it. This and health care could pay big dividend.
I hear it rained somewhere today. Is there no end to Obama’s evil?
Yep, like calling the Affordable Health Care Act, Obamacare. It may be toxic to some now, but won’t be for long and the so-called conservative pundits will be on the wrong side of history ripping off the Koch Bros’ money.
For someone so feckless and indecisive, Obama certainly is being tyranical.
Guess his presidency isn’t really over, eh Chuck Todd?
Seriously, GOP, if your collective kid called a native american a “Redskin” you’d tell him to cut it out. Right?