Vast scare tactics were used by the GOP's fanatic Tea Party faction, largely a group of failures who think that by doing the dirty work of the super-rich, they will make America great.

Within a few months, the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to decide if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was constitutional. Everything I knew about this Supreme Court had me expecting the worst. Ideologically, most of them were the same gang who intervened to steal the 2000 presidential election.

But what happened last week made me gasp. John Roberts, the ideologically right-wing chief justice, voted that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was constitutional!

National health care was saved — for now. Yes, it isn't perfect. Yes, there should be a single-payer option, etc. etc. etc. But it is better than what we have ever had before. There are those who think Roberts did this for his own sinister reasons.

Doesn't matter. There is now a clear issue on which this election should be fought. If Mitt Romney wins and the Republicans take both houses of Congress, they will, beyond any doubt, destroy our hope of universal health care.

That's an issue worth fighting for.

So is our beautiful state of Michigan. Two hundred and thirty-six years ago, a bunch of farmers took on the British Empire and eventually won their independence.

Why can't Michigan's 10 million residents take on the creeps and the special interests and the know-nothings, and make this state what it used to be — a place that took care of its people and built roads and educated its kids? Will it be a hard fight? Damn right.

Do we have any clear leaders we can trust? Not really, not yet.

So we'll have to do it ourselves. Which is what the Founding Fathers said, when they were just regular folks, once upon a time.

And if we think our future is worth fighting for, the Fourth of July seems like a pretty good time to start.

Jack Lessenberry opines weekly for Metro Times. Write to letters@metrotimes.com.

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