A post-election wish list

As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews seemed to say Sunday for every political junkie in America, “I’m sure going to miss this election.”

True enough. Few elections have seen the type of excitement generated by both the Republican and Democratic primaries, and then the main event: a knock-down drag-out fight for president between Republican John McCain and President-elect Barack Obama.

But perhaps what Matthews should have also said was no one — the soldiers, sailors and Marines who are fighting and dying overseas, the millions around the world who took to the streets in opposition to a suspect administration and an illegal war, all those who felt the sting of the Homeland Security apparatus set up outside the limits of the Constitution under the guise of keeping us safe — is going to miss George W. Bush.

Today, this soon-to-be-ex-president — this “worst president of all time,” as he’s being called by some — is such a political and personal pariah that even his own friends and fellow party leaders wouldn’t be seen with him or allow him to speak in public too much in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election.

Even McCain, who — as Obama correctly and repeatedly pointed out — voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, wouldn’t be seen with his one-time rival and eventual mentor who led us into a seemingly endless war in Iraq, all while ignoring vital battlefronts elsewhere and dealing with the economic crisis he helped create by turning over $750 billion in tax money to help selfish private interests in the waning days of his administration.

But now that our eight-year national nightmare is almost over, now that Bush and his henchmen are losing control over all the buttons and pens used for making war and secret laws with secret “signing statements,” it’s time to get our dibs in and lay down some of the things that we would like to see from the next administration.

First of all, America must dedicate itself to waging peace as earnestly as it wages war. The fighting in Iraq must end and political resolution and emotional closure for the attacks of 9/11 must be achieved through diplomatic means in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Then that spirit of reconciliation must be applied at home. Why, if America did as well at killing terrorists as it does locking up its own young men, especially young men of color — some of them virtual kids without adequate education and possessing no job skills or sense of self-worth or appreciation for anything outside of violence — America’s wars would be over soon after they started.

That means the next president must provide children of all ages, as well as older Americans in need of retraining and retooling, with funding opportunities to attend college or trade school in order to achieve the American Dream. Just as we should have, as Dennis Kucinich said, a Department of Peace, so too should there be a Department of Academic and Technical Achievement (DATA) through which all people — children and adults — receive the educational opportunities they need and deserve in order to improve their abilities and their lives.

Education will be the underpinning to any success we may enjoy in competing in a global economy with new energy sources — solar, wind, bio-fuel — that seem to be developing and improving by the day. We will need a population that understands basic math and science in order to compete, and to develop the cleanest, most fuel-efficient modes of transportation possible. We believe that a separate cabinet post should be created for the development of alternative sources of energy, and not just fossil-based and nuclear fuels.

Of course, we must be healthy, and it is through the Department of Health and Human Services that we would like to see the changes made to ensure that every American — as candidate Obama pledged — receives the same health care coverage afforded to members of Congress.

There is a lot more territory to cover: resolving the nation’s immigration crisis, lifting working class people out of poverty, providing affordable housing, increasing wages, lowering the cost of gas, food and other basics.

But there’s an old adage that goes with knock-down, drag-out fights: If you play hard and do what you’re supposed to do, the score will take care of itself. We think if President-elect Obama follows this game plan, and then expands on it for the benefit of all — not just the chosen few, as his predecessor did for eight horribly long years — a nation of winners won’t have to worry about the score at the end of the day.