Terry Frank recently posted this video of Ronald Reagan talking about socialized health care.

The Democratic Party’s platform from 2004 says the following about health care:

We believe not just that a strong America begins at home, but that a strong America begins in the home. And just as government’s first responsibility is the health and safety of its people, parents’ first responsibility is the health and safety of their children. We believe that health care is a right and not a privilege.

Health care is your right, Democrats say. For health care to be a right, it must follow that you can demand that someone else provide you with such care, as well as force other people to pay for it.

But what kind of right is it that obligates other people to provide you with the funds and services necessary to actualize it?

The closest possible example might be the right to a trial by jury, which leads to compulsory jury duty. But even then, it’s for only a short period of time, is required under a narrow set of circumstances, and doesn’t demand that someone’s income or livelihood be co-opted. It’s merely akin to waiting in traffic at a red light — a civic responsibility; without it, society cannot function and chaos reigns.

But health care? How is it that the Left has suddenly determined that we have this as a right? Abortion was the last right they found hidden in the Constitution. What’s going to come next?

Even the Socialist Party doesn’t list health care as a right. They instead list health care as a “human need” in their party platform. Otherwise, the big-S Socialists sound no different than small-s Democrats. Here’s what they have to say:

The Socialist Party stands for a socialized health care system based on universal coverage, salaried doctors and health care workers, and revenues derived from a steeply graduated income tax.

1. We support a national health program with full standard and alternative medical, dental, vision, and mental health coverage for all, publicly funded through progressive taxation and controlled by democratically elected assemblies of health care workers and patients. The National Health Program should extend, and replace, Medicare and Medicaid.

2. We call for a health care system that emphasizes preventive care, respects patients’ privacy, gives special attention to the needs of the physically and mentally disabled, and conducts treatment and research unimpaired by sexism, racism, or homophobia.

3. We call for full funding for AIDS research, prevention, and treatment. We demand full civil rights for people living with AIDS.

4. We call for public ownership and worker and community control of the pharmaceutical industry.

5. We call for educational programs to help prevent drug addiction; for voluntary treatment programs for addicts and alcoholics; and for the availability of free, sterile needles for those still using IV drugs.

6. We call for the reinstatement of funding to community mental health services so that low-cost or no-cost treatment is available on a voluntary basis, with clients’ rights respected. We oppose involuntary incarceration for treatment without due process.

7. We support the right to choose or refuse medical treatment, the right to die, and the right to assisted suicide.

National health care, preventative care, more funding for research, mental health, euthanasia… these are identical to the talking points my Democratic boss promotes day in and day out.

So who’s going to be our Ronald Reagan this time around?