Opinion - Letters to the Editor

POSTED: Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008

Unhappy Obama isn't really a socialist

As I learn more about the American dream, I believe it is more about exploitation than it is about anything else. Work, war and bad credit; not freedom, peace or justice.

When the right-wing attack machine started calling Barack Obama a socialist, I was really excited. I voted for Obama hoping he would be a "social" socialist as opposed to a "fiscal" socialist. But instead of doing the right thing and bailing out schools, students, veterans, municipalities, communities and non-profits, it appears that he is going to bail out the same corporate suits who got us into this mess.

Instead of helping Whatcom Community College, I believe Obama is going to put us in debt to a self-bankrupted capitalist machine that I believe values profits over people.

I believe what Rep. Rick Larsen and President-Elect Obama are doing is the opposite of true socialism, which, by its definition, means taking care of people instead of corporations. As much as I might wish that the conservatives were right calling Obama a socialist, I guess we will all have to learn to live with disappointment.

Evan Knappenberger

Bellingham