True story: my earliest memory is walking into my grandmother’s living room and seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall on television. Though, at three, I was far too young to understand the gravity of what I was seeing, remembering those images is staggering. Because of this, I’ve always had a natural curiosity about what happened with the Berlin Wall and, more importantly, what life was like for those on its east side.

It has taken a lot of studying on my part, as my generation is too young to remember much about the Cold War and the fall of communism. Few of us can recall the horrors experienced by those in communist regimes or the images of people rushing toward the Wall in a desperate attempt to escape. This may explain why young conservatives are so quick to label President Obama and anybody on the left a godless communist.

In a rush to vilify and demonize those on the left, Republicans have labeled healthcare reform, the TARP, and Mr. Obama’s diplomatic approach to foreign policy as nothing short of socialism. In the process, they’ve cast Mr. Obama as the political heir to Stalin and congressional Democrats as equivalent to the Stasi, the state police of East Germany who were responsible for persecuting “class enemies,” or political dissenters— in this case analogous (in the mind of the right, at least) to the Tea Party protestors.

The political realities aside—that a true socialist would have nationalized healthcare, for example, instead of simply proposing an expansion of government coverage—it makes for a jarring statement. “Obama is a communist” packs a heavier political punch than “Obama is liberal.”

It also carries a heavier injury, not just to Mr. Obama but to the country. By comparing Mr. Obama with communist dictators of the 20th century, the right is guilty of the same sins they accused liberals of committing when some on the left heedlessly compared George W. Bush to Hitler. For if you think you’re living in a communist state now, or that Mr. Obama is Lenin’s protégé, you should study your Cold War history and rethink those sentiments.

Last I checked the FBI isn’t corralling dissenters. Political prisoners aren’t being locked away, let alone disappearing, never to be heard from again. You can still hold Tea Parties without fearing the repercussions to your reputation, your job, your family, or your life. There isn’t a wall around the Big Apple keeping New Yorkers in and the rest of us out. And you can still cross the border to Canada without being shot.

Every time you even suggest that President Obama is a communist, you insult not only the good name of the United States, which is still a free and democratic society, but you spit on the memory of the thousands who gave their lives refusing to cooperate with an evil dictatorship. Any insinuation that President Obama is the ideological brother of Stalin is an affront to the sacrifices made by the hundreds of people who died attempting to scale the Berlin Wall to escape a Stalinist regime for freedom in the west. It is a crime against history to even breathe the names “Obama” and “Hitler” or the words “Democrats” and “communists” in the same breath. It is a sin against democracy to attempt to make such a comparison, because there is none to be made.

You may have issues with the policies of President Obama and the Democratic Party, but implying that either is somehow secretively attempting to transform this republic into a communist state is not only inaccurate but inexcusable. To do so is to ignore the hellish realities of the Soviet Union and East Germany and the suffering and sacrifices of so many in the name of liberty.

On the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a day in which our world became a freer, more just society, I should hope we don’t forget the trauma humanity suffered. It is my sincerest wish that we do not pervert and diminish the lessons learned in the name of political expediency and possible electoral gains. To do so is to blaspheme the name of democracy—and the memory of those who gave their lives for it.