George Will, the Redskins and the new intolerance

A spate of firings isn’t the only sign of a growing intolerance in American life. Several college commencement speakers were disinvited or pressured to withdraw this spring because some students and professors objected to their past words and actions — among them International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Debate has been simmering for a while now on whether the Washington Redskins football team should change its name. Some people consider it offensive. There’s a reasonable debate to be had on that question. But the federal government has now taken sides in this cultural controversy: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled the team’s trademark registrations on the grounds that they disparage Native Americans.

The most troubling of these stories is the last one, because the government is getting involved — and because there are calls for it to get more involved. The Washington Post editorialized that the trademark decision was a blow for tolerance, which seems close to the opposite of the truth, and noted approvingly that senators with a say in the team’s tax status had urged a name change. But using the power of government to settle these disputes can’t set a good precedent.