The idea of universal healthcare comes and goes like a big sick elephant in the room. It’s a throwaway line for Obama, one in a series of things on his to-do list. Makes me long for you –know- who. 
No honest person can say that healthcare wouldn’t be tough, expensive and a nightmare to implement. But there are other dishonesties here. Let’s admit that many people who have health insurance don’t care about those who don’t. I know a guy who’s going for Nader. He wants to stop global warming. He has health insurance and a Prius. Let me put this another way. I don’t trust the Left to make this happen. Too many of them have health insurance. 
Never mind the obvious--that we end up paying for the uninsured anyway and many still go down and lose everything. But here’s the salient point: American industry can’t compete with countries that have factored healthcare into their economic and social structure for decades. The costs of healthcare adds an unmanageable amount to the bottom line for American industry. How can we compete with countries that have spread out that cost more evenly and sanely? 

The rarely spoken history also is that we’ve subsidized the healthcare systems of other nations through our military role in the world for sixty years. When Putin invades Georgia, that’s an issue for Europe not Sarah Palin. We’ve paid for economic stability in Asia for half a century. South Koreans have healthcare. So do the Japanese. The Chinese will get back to it if they’re smart. I’ll be unhappy when the Chinese take back that little island country we’ve paid for. But not unhappy enough to have a war about it—or let McCain or Sara play god with a gun in those once-famous Formosa Straights. Taiwan has a healthcare system by the way. 
Americans have been fooled on this defense issue for decades. Things can only change when the issue is shifted into misspent dollars. But patriotism can play into a solution. Even a 60’s left- leaner like me got tired of Germans complaining about Americans having too much land for military bases. OK. It was kind of fun to rebuild the world after the big one. Saved it from the Communists too, so they say. But it was expensive. 
If I’m sounding like a good old boy unfit for conversation at the ACLU luncheon, I’m getting through to you. The Left needs to change its tone. We need some of those good old boys and girls on our side. Let them keep their damn guns. Let’s settle for a plan for the gunshots.
Explain healthcare in the dollars we spend for other countries to have it. Throw down an American flag at the bottom line. And send a check to the ACLU anyway –if you have health insurance. 
Hey, Ike ! You were right about the military-industrial complex. Thanks for Normandy by the way.