The owner of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League, Dan Snyder, will not admit this yet, but he is going to yield to the pressure from the political left and change the team’s name.
The coordinated attack by liberals on the Redskins is nothing personal. They have no gripe with Snyder. They are just looking for a way to cause as much division and anger as possible and his team’s name works for them.
It is argued by those who thrive on tumult and chaos that “Redskins” is a pejorative term that is offensive to Native Americans.
The concern of those who actually are Native Americans is not so clear. One survey concludes that 90 percent are not offended at all. A Dakota Sioux woman said it showed approval of their history.
Native Americans protest before the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Redskins game on November 7, 2013 at Mall of America Field at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
The liberal grievance committee, though, is unmoved by the lack of concern among those on whose behalf they claim to seek justice. In fact this is not a fight for justice, but an opportunity to disrupt. This is just one more step down the road for adherents of the Cloward-Piven Strategy of manufactured crises.
Columbia University Sociologists, Richard A. Cloward and Francis Fox Piven first described the strategy in an article in 1966. You create a crisis by defining a victim and finding someone to blame. You then drive hard and mean wedges between groups of people. This is perfect. A disproportionately poor group offended by a rich team owner.
The goal is to create enough chaos to overload the society with problems so that capitalism will collapse. Socialism stands ready to pick up the pieces. It may take years of wedge issues and mob scenes, but they are patient.
The left succeeds because they never ever give up. They have no investment beyond a few press releases and some rented mobs. The Service Employees International Union is usually willing to pay for the mobs since they share the end goal.
The press releases and rented mobs will not be alone. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can always be counted on to take the fight to the Senate floor sending the message to the bureaucracy.
On June 18, 2014 the United States Trademark and Patent Office concluded that the Redskin’s trademark insulted Native Americans and cancelled the trademarks that had been awarded the Redskins for the commercial use of the name.
The patent office responds to letter and phone campaigns that express the concerns of citizens regarding a trademark or patent. In this case, when asked how many letters they received, they said that it was exactly – zero!
(AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
In early September John Banzhaf, a public interest law professor at George Washington University filed a petition with the Federal Communication Commission challenging the Redskins radio license on the grounds that the use of the name was an obscenity and constituted a hate crime.
Even the president has weighed in.
There comes a point when the average American, who only wants to provide a living for his family and his employees, just gives up. The left is in this fight as professionals. They will show up at your home and frighten your family and your neighbors. And they will never give up.
Who would have believed that the zealots pushing to legalize abortion in 1973 would, 40 years later, demand not only the right to an abortion, but the right to have others pay for it? And when the ultimate decision is to abort a baby because it is a girl and the new parents want a boy as firstborn, that decision would be defended as a woman’s health issue.
My father died in 1977. He was 67 years old and followed politics closely. If I had suggested to him that the marriage of same sex couples would someday occupy the same moral ground as the marriage of a man and a woman he would have laughed at me.
But the resistance finally collapsed after years of insults and recriminations. When you have free contingents of communicators in Hollywood and the major media outlets ready and willing to join your manufactured crisis you can create a lot of damage without having to leave the house.
Dan Snyder will decide that it will just be easier to get all of this behind him by picking a name that is a warm comfort to most of the whiners who believe that he should yield to their crisis of the day. He could just call his team the Washington Democrats.
But that would be too easy and it does nothing for the designated victim.
He should make this statement: “I will change the name of my team from the Washington Redskins to the Washington Democrats exactly one day after our Washington politicians return to the Native American Indians their land. Call me when you’re ready. Until then – Hail To The Redskins.”
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