(for full article, visit BaltimoreSun.com.)

You wouldn't know it from our nation's debate over Obamacare, but the U.S. has had government-supported health care for nearly 80 years. Not only that, but our nation bolsters a retirement level well beyond the thin safety net provided by Social Security, and it even ensures Americans a path to a family-supporting wage. And, no, I have not mistaken the U.S. for a socialist European nation.

On November 6th, America witnessed an historic occurence. The re-election of President Barack Obama both shocked and elated not only America's voters, but people around the world. Prominent members of the Republican Party had announced that their first priority was to prevent the president from being re-elected.

In fact, it now has been revealed that certain governors and election officials consciously and deliberately conspired to suppress the Democratic turnout to prevent the president's victory. Right wing pundits confidently predicted the president's fall.