Medicare for all

This is what Democrats have to fight.

The Republican majority of the Supreme Court is very likely to overturn the Affordable Care Act tomorrow, fully embracing the "let 'em die" attitude that has become the Republican rallying cry.

There's just one answer for Democrats: Medicare for all.

Any attempt by Democrats to find common ground with the Right is going to end just like this one has. Republicans play this game to win, and in their world, winning doesn't include compromise. What more evidence is needed to prove that than the 180 degree turn Republicans have taken on the mandate'the health care reform mechanism that was invented by the Heritage Foundation in 1989, and was the cornerstone of the health care reform plan implemented in Massachusetts by the current Republican candidate for president?

Is there any choice for Democrats other than to go to the left on health care reform? No. There's nothing else to lose at this point, and a great deal to gain. Politically, as I wrote earlier, it's a clear win.

A Medicare for all platform allows the Democrats to run against the activist Supreme Court, to run against the horribly unpopular Romney-Ryan Medicare plan, to provide the real contrast between the parties that many voters have struggled to see. And it would excite the hell out of the Democratic base; it would give us something to fight for. What's the worse that could happen? Republicans calling Medicare socialism?

For a true Democrat, it's also the only policy solution left. If Democrats are to be the party of the people, the party of the 99 percent, then they can no longer leave the people of this country to the mercy of unfettered and barely regulated health insurance companies. If Democrats are really the party of the people, then they have to continue this fight for all the reasons they started it: because the wealthiest nation in the world should not have nearly 50 million citizens who don't have affordable health care; because it is wrong for people to lose everything because of illness; because it is wrong, morally, strategically and in every way, to condemn millions of Americans to death for the simple fact that they don't have money.

That's exactly what Republicans would do, and do happily. The Romney-Ryan plan makes that crystal clear by demolishing Medicaid and making Medicare just another private insurance scheme that will restrict rather than expand health care. And that's exactly what Democrats have to reject, with everything they've got.