Socialism is here, and it’s OK

The number of letters in the Spokesman lately bemoaning the U.S.’s “march toward socialism” has made me strongly believe that the authors of these letters don’t understand what “socialism” is, the complexity of the globalized economy or the true depths of our current economic mess, or what the Constitution guarantees to its citizens.

Let me go on record as saying that I’m a socialist, and happily so. My socialist ideas urge me to point out that the Constitution doesn’t guarantee any particular type of economic system; that a bizarrely inverted version of socialism has already existed in this country for as long as the free market has been altered by government’s subsidization of corporations; that consumer freedom is not the only kind of freedom; that protests against taxation in general are childish and immature; and that what counts most about an economic plan for recovery is its design and consequences, not who came up with it.

Citizens should live up to their responsibilities, consider economic alternatives fairly and intelligently, and stop repeating the talking points offered by ideologues.

Kevin S. Decker

Spokane