Rush Limbaugh took his Obama hate to an absurd new low today by blaming President Obama for the Washington Redskins losing their trademark.
Limbaugh said:
This is not the Patent and Trademark Office. This is Barack Obama. One of the things in reporting out of Washington that has happened during this administration… This is 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.
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He is the executive branch. But yet it’s never reported that way. It’s never, “The Obama administration today canceled the trademark ownership and registration the Washington Redskins.” No, it’s the Patent and Trademark Office — a nameless, faceless bunch of geeks. Wrong! Barack Obama’s administration did this. Barack Obama’s administration lied to you about keeping your doctor.
Barack Obama’s administration has basically erased the Southern border of the United States and is allowing anybody in. Barack Obama’s administration is doing all of this, and they’re just now getting up to full speed. It’s not the Patent and Trademark Office. That’s just the location of the implementation. The thinking, the intellectual firepower, the desire, the instructions, the orders, the power to do this is coming right out of the White House.
Make no mistake about it. IRS? Obama! Not Lois Lerner. She was just the woman that implemented the desires/demands that come from the White House. This is all executive branch stuff, and it’s never reported that way. “The IRS today said five rogue agents in Cincinnati,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No. The White House. The Obama administration. In a sense, this is landmark.
Has a name ever been criminalized before? Have we ever…? I don’t know. I’m just asking off the top of my head. So in that sense, it may be landmark. But I told you it’s gonna be cheered, and you need to note the people cheering it. Those people deserve to lose their next election, the people cheering this. This is the simple taking of private property rights without any kind of due process whatsoever. Zilch, zero, nada.
Limbaugh blamed the cancellation of the Redskins trademark on Redskins owner Dan Snyder being a Republican. The problem with Limbaugh’s Obama/Redskins conspiracy is that today’s ruling was the second time in fifteen years that US Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the federal trademark of the Washington Redskins. Back in 1999, when Clinton was president, the USPTO ruled against the Redskins on the same grounds that the trademark “redskins” is a term that disparages Native Americans.
Rush Limbaugh was also wrong about Obama making the Redskins change their name. Even if the Redskins lose the trademark, there is nothing legally stopping them from keeping the name. Obama did not criminalize anything, or bully private enterprise as so many conservatives are suggesting. The Redskins can keep the name, even if they lose, but they it will be much more difficult for them to protect their merchandising without the federal trademark.
Limbaugh was wrong about the lack of due process. The Redskins will appeal this decision in federal court. The Redskins have the right to appeal, and the appeals process may take years. The existence of this legal process destroys the right’s argument that Obama is a dictator who is oppressing the Washington NFL team.
This sort of reality detached anti-Obama delusion is what makes the cash registers ring for Republicans and the right. Limbaugh’s claims today had no basis in fact, and were the ramblings of a man who makes his living by feeding into the fear and hatred of this president that he has cultivated among his audience for years.
Republicans really will blame Obama for anything, including the racist history of the Washington Redskins’ name.
Article Edited to correct the fact that Bill Clinton was president, not George W. Bush in 1999.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
