Last week, the House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill that included a public option for those who cannot afford private health insurance. As the debate roars on, the Republicans’ opposition to this “government-run health care” option becomes louder and louder. Democrats in the Senate should not fear the virulent conservative rage and press for the public option. If we can get the public option, there is little chance that it will ever be demolished.

Standing before the Democratic National Convention in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt pledged a new deal for the American people. Among the programs Roosevelt brought forth was Social Security. Conservatives have berated the program for decades as socialist in nature, yet nothing has been done. Seventy-four years have passed, and no Republican Congress has dismantled the program.

Meanwhile, a larger part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” Medicare, was an attempt to ensure that elderly Americans had health insurance long after they were working. Republicans blasted the program as socialized health care and wanted the federal government to have nothing to do with it. Ronald Reagan saw the program as problematic for future generations and a curtailment of freedom. It has been 44 years since Medicare passed, but the program is still around.

These two programs constitute the largest examples of big government programs in the federal government today. If Republicans were truly the party of no big government, Medicare and Social Security would have disappeared decades ago.

The track record of the Republican Party is to fight hard against social programs and then come to accept them as integral parts of American society. The party makes no serious efforts to derail these programs once they are in effect, thus giving up on the “no big government” attitude.

This is exactly why Senate Democrats must act swiftly to put their foot in the door for universal health care right now. Once the public option becomes solidified within the federal government, Republicans will not dare touch it. Decimating the program would result in wrenching insurance out of millions of Americans’ hands. Even Republicans are not that callous.

From there, the program can be expanded to include more and more people. People who are simply fed up with their private insurance can switch to the government program. Then the program can be integrated with Medicaid and Medicare so the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised can all have basic insurance. The option must work in concert with Medicare to safeguard the most at risk in society Providing citizens the ability to receive basic medical services is an essential right, whether it is directly guaranteed by the Constitution or not. Universal health care is not a bogeyman out to get the American taxpayer. It is an attempt to create a society in which everyone has equal access to care so that all Americans can be healthy enough to pursue happiness.

Let us hope the Senate does the right thing by keeping the public option in the final bill, so that perhaps we can make true progress for the first time in 44 years.