The Real Bullies Among Us

The Obama Regime has made an 'anti-bullying' campaign a major issue since Day One, and the Left has eagerly followed.

The president has made numerous speeches, sponsored conferences and even endorsed legislation forcing public schools to enact anti-bullying codes of conduct and submit data to the Department of Education showing compliance.

 

Yes, nobody likes a bully.

Today, the Washington Redskins football team and their owner, Dan Snyder were subjected to some bullying. For quite some time, they've been subjected to a campaign to change their traditional nickname based on a 2006 appeal by a handful of activists that claims the name is derogatory to Native Americans.

The team and its owner have continuously refused to change their nickname, so some additional bullying tactics were called for. Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday cancelled six federal trademarks of Washington Redskins.

What that means is that the Redskins no longer own their proprietary trademark, and anyone can produce tee shirts, jackets, caps and other merchandise with the team logo on it without compensating the Redskins. It amounts to the government taking of private property without compensation, something the Constitution declares is illegal.

The team has been through this before and successfully appealed a similar decision like this in court, and there's no doubt they will appeal this one as well. The rules about  what's supposedly derogatory and what isn't when it comes to trademarks and ads is so vague and subjective that in the end, it really depends on what you personally see as demeaning. Once again, we're talking about a right not to be offended that simply doesn't exist. I mean, is the term 'redskin peanuts' offensive? Should it be banned?

The Redskins aside, this got me to thinking. For all the noise about bullying, it's the Obama Regime and the Left that are the prime practitioners.

It's the Regime and the Left who are bullying coal companies using the EPA and trying to put them out of business.

It's the Obama Regime that has been bullying countries like Israel, Honduras, and Egypt,among others.

It's the Regime and the Left that have been bullying bakers, florists,photographers and caterers to service homosexual weddings that violate their religious convictions. Ditto for Catholic institutions when it comes to providing abortificants and birth control to their employees.

It's the Obama campaign and the Left who bullied Sarah Palin and her children and attempted to bankrupt her and her family.

It's the Obama Regime that has used the IRS to bully groups and even individual donors who disagree with them politically.

It was the Obama Regime that bullied individual stockholders in GM (many of them retirees) and cut their holdings while leaving Union holdings intact.

And that's just a small sampling of the kind of bullying that's been going on since Barack Obama entered the Oval Office.

But come to think of it, that shouldn't be a surprise, given who 'progressives' actually are and who their predecessors were. Demonizing and bullying those they perceive as their enemies has been a tactic of theirs for a long time now.