Socialists deserve apology

I am a socialist. Barack Obama is not.

I believe illegal imperialist invasions and bloody military occupations should end now. Obama does not. I believe the trillions wasted on U.S. weapons used against civilian populations should end and the money be used here at home and abroad for projects not at the service of capitalist mega-corporations. Obama does not. I believe universal health care is a right whose time is now. Obama does not. I believe in bailing out people, not banks. Obama does not.

I believe this country is owned by wealthy elites whose interests are represented by members of a two-party ruling class consensus, Republican and Democrat, which responds to moneyed interests and not to the needs or will of the people. Obama does not.

I believe the Nobel Prize goes to those who end wars, sign conventions against land mines, and prosecute torturers. Obama does not.

I am a socialist. Obama is not. Those who call him a socialist have an agenda: to marginalize socialists and to paint Obama with the brush of knee-jerk Cold War psychobabble. If you are a socialist, make it clear by acting and speaking accordingly. Obama is a war-mongering capitalist imperialist.

David A. Brookbank Jr.

Spokane