What Is Medicare? Read Steve Benen's Thorough Commentary

All I'm suggesting is that a little critical thinking on the part of the electorate and the political world can go a long way.

Well, in today's false equivalent world, that suggestion will fall on deaf ears. Still, the piece by Steve Benen is a good read.

Given how critically important this is in the presidential election, let's pause for a moment to consider the bigger picture.

[snip]

What is Medicare? It's a massive, government-run system of socialized medicine. It's wildly popular, very successful, and one of the pillars of modern Democratic governance. This government-run system of socialized medicine was created by Democrats against the opposition of conservative Republicans, and it's Democrats who've fought to protect it for more than a half-century.

Or to summarize, the left loves Medicare and always has; the right hates Medicare and always has. For liberals, the system is a celebrated ideal; for conservatives it's an unconstitutional, big-government outrage in desperate need of privatization.

[snip]

In other words, the argument pushed by the most right-wing major-party ticket in a generation is that Barack Obama is a left-wing socialist who wants government-run socialized medicine and that Barack Obama is a far-right brute who wants to undermine government-run socialized medicine.