than the average American.

And I won't make a Dick Armey joke....but Newt? He's a joke all by himself!

Senator Sanders calls himself that.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

... their socialistic programs, and all the claims that Obama was a socialist didn't matter a whit in the end.

that's the point.

Young and willing to help.

They don't mind that he calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Many of them are far more savvy about the world than their parents were.

The Koch brothers and their employees including those they pay to parrot their views on the internet are too late to the party. Their wealth has rendered them oblivious to reality.

If you think Medicare is socialism, it's just sad.

What business model would or could take on the high risk group that is insured by Medicare?

It does not exist.

And that is why Medicare exists.

My mother died at 98. Until she was in her late 80s, she hardly used her Medicare at al.

Another person turns 65, immediately is diagnosed with a severe form of cancer needing endless costly treatments. It's the luck of the genetic and lifestyle draw, and we who are over 65 know it.

If you smoke, you want to support Medicare because you are at high risk of a) dying young and b) suffering from a prolonged illness.

I belong to a group of people. All are religious. We have been friends for many, many, many years. Since our twenties and thirties. I am not 72, and it has been amazing to see how those who smoke die first. Heartbreaking but that is the way it is. I have lost many of my friends to premature tobacco deaths. I admit that my conclusion is based on anecdotal evidence, but for me that is enough.

Medicare should be expanded to cover all of us. Because you or I or anyone can have drawn genes that doom us to long, extended and expensive medical care.

But Medicare for the elderly makes sense. Market-based economics would make any affordable insurance other than Medicare impossible for most people over 65.

Republicans are caught up by their own fanaticism in such ardent adoration of privatization and "free" enterprise for every problem we face. Free enterprise is great for most things. But healthcare for the elderly is not one of them.

I would not want a slam-dunk socialism solves all problems theory to run my country either. The best thing is to issue by issue let the people decide.

This is especially true now that we face environmental crises that we have not previously faced.

...but here's the thing. If dedication and 100% rock-solid commitment, willingness to even make significant sacrifices by a relative handful of true believers did anything, then we'd have this guy as President already:

Yeah. Ron Paul-ites really thought Ron Paul was happening.


You see, I actually agree with you that Republicans have gone off the deep end. But habits are hard to break. When people are so incredibly disgusted with their own party they really have no excuse, they rarely go from Tea/publican to "Democratic Socialist". They first need to admit to themselves they were wrong. The stages usually look like this:

1. Republican
2. Embarrassed Republican
3. Both Sides are bad, so vote Republican
4. I need an excuse, any excuse, to vote Republican
5. Okay I won't vote.
6. Alright, screw it, I'll vote Democrat. Just this once, so the Republican will finally stop nominating neanderthals
7. I consider myself an independent. I support reasonable people on both sides, it's just that Democrats are the only reasonable ones right at the moment
8. Jesus F. H. Christ. Trump?!? TRUMP????!!!?? Okay, that's it. I'm changing my registration
9. (maybe never gets this far) I'm a Democratic Socialist.

The problem with Senator Sanders calling himself the "S." word is that it hits at the people who are at stages 4., 5., and 6. I'm sorry, but rhetoric matters. You just can't associate yourself with the word that communist dictatorships used to describe themselves with for 40 years and get wavering ex-Republicans over to your side. Hell, look at Paul Davis in Kansas. He was found to have gone to a strip bar once when he was in his mid-twenties. Wow! Awful! And yet, it was all the pretext that Republican voters needed to vote for Brownback again, despite the fact that they hated him.

Senator Sanders right out the gate declared himself to be a "base" candidate by describing himself in terms that turn a good 10% of people off from him, and then on top of that, unilaterally disarming himself by refusing to do any sort of serious fundraising. I admire the fellow for living by his principles, but there is also the principal that people are helped by the good, and that the good has two natural enemies, evil and the "perfect".

Even if Senator Sanders won office (which would never happen), he would almost certainly not accomplish much in the current legislative environment. That's simply a fact. How people can be interested in politics for such a long time and pretend that the other side doesn't exist and doesn't have political power is beyond me. But it's true.

Even if I were in love with Senator Sanders, which I'm not, I would not risk a guaranteed Supreme Court pick to hear him quickly be dismissed as a non-factor as President.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

several years older, and I proudly pulled out my brand-new Medicare card. She said she just loves Medicare herself, because everything is so much easier than it was with their employee health care.

I just love it.

Even the homeless and all immigrants. Why not?

Most people who are healthy enough to cross the border would not be a big risk on our insurance system.

Please note that Medicare for all is not free. You get it when you work and pay into it or when you register in some fashion for it and become a part of "the system." Those who truly do not want to be known by the symptom, say, ex-cons on the run, would not have this kind of insurance. Because you have to sign up for it.

People wouldn't wait until some health issue has ballooned to a catastrophe.

When you first go on Medicare, you're eligible for a full physical to figure out what might be needed. This is above and beyond the yearly physical.

I have an Advantage Plan which is totally amazing. I have zero copay for regular doctor visits. The meds I'm so far taking have been covered. I get a fifty dollar per month allowance for various over the counter things. At the beginning of this month I bought a new digital scale. Nothing out of my pocket. I can get certain non prescription meds. It includes things like adult diapers. I don't happen to need them, but maybe some day I will. And then there's the free membership in health clubs, which I'll confess I'm not taking advantage of.

This is exactly what it should be like for everyone. By not starting until age 65, so many opportunities are lost. Maybe we'd put a real dent in the explosion of type 2 diabetes if everyone had all the health care they needed. So many chronic diseases might be averted.

We are going to get sick, and all of us are going to die in the end. Some of us have genetic time bombs ticking away inside. But all of us, and I ABSOLUTELY include those who seem to be doing all the wrong things: smoking, eating far too much, never exercising, whatever, all of us deserve health care. Yeah, some people make dumb life style decisions. But they shouldn't be punished for that by being refused appropriate care. That's as irrational as telling someone with a genetic disease, "Too bad, you chose the wrong parents."

Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.