Let me bring in to question my liberal, progressive, lefty, socialist, snowflake bona fides for a moment: I'm not sure I think health care is a right.

Now, this has nothing to do with the constitution. Health, and the maintenance of good health, is something that is universal. Hell, it's not something that just affects us, but we worry about our pets and our livestock health too. Those of us on the left also worry about the health of rivers, forests, oceans, fields, jungles, etc.

But you know what is a right? The country we live in, that we pay taxes to, that we help elect officials to govern, well, it's my right for that government to protect me. That's literally the only thing I expect it to do. I expect it to protect me from crazy regimes in other countries. I expect it to protect me from shitty people who think setting off bombs and driving cars into crowds and planes into buildings is a good way to get your point across.

And you know what else I expect it to protect me from? Shitty people who think that making a profit to the detriment of other people is a right. I want them to protect the water I have to drink from toxins, and I want them to make sure the food I'm eating doesn't have noxious chemicals or poo in it. And I want them to make sure that any industry doesn't have players that collude with each other to drive prices up beyond the level of inflation, putting services out of reach of the majority of citizens. I believe that this should be prevented as far as cell phone carriers, cable, electric, food, and transport industries are concerned, and I sure as shit think it should be prevented as far as the health industry is concerned.

When one party is more interested in profits for companies, tax cuts for the wealthy, to the detriment of the majority of citizens, THEN my rights are being shat on. So is it a right that I have health care? No. But it IS a right that the government protect me from the companies making it impossible to afford. It's a right that the government protect me from the arseholes venture capitalists who see nothing wrong in buying a patent on a drug and jacking the price a thousand percent. It's a right that government protect me from a company that cares more about delivering dividends than providing palliative care.

I don't want the government to fix all my problems. But I want them to provide the environment in which I have a fair shot at fixing my own problems. I want them to protect me from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and right now in the US, the biggest enemies we face are the shareholders of the companies that clamour for their lower tax rate return on investment, and the politicians than enable a culture of greed.