I have always been a very firm believer in the notion that America, first and foremost, is a nation of ideas. In my ideal world, America has the best and brightest individuals who come up with the ideas, and leave the rest of the world to manufacture and implement these ideas as they see fit. When I say "ideas", I essentially mean new technologies, new industries, new ways of doing things, et cetera.
Understandably, I support the whole notion of globalization. In my mind, globalization isn't so much the act of standardizing the world as it is establishing a standard and (relatively) equal foundation from which all nations and peoples can build upon as they see fit. In my ideal world, America comes up with innovative ideas which help form a universal foundation for the rest of the world.
In my ideal world, the loss of several million jobs during Bush's run was tragic, yes. I feel awful for those people who are presently out of work and are struggling to make ends meet. But the fact that the majority of these job losses were in the manufacturing industries - and not in the industries that establish ideas - is comforting to me. This takes America's focus away from manufacturing (I think what pisses me off the most about Kucinich is that he's very much for manufacturing) and forces us to, over time, focus on the creation of new ideas. In my ideal world and in the short term, I think it's important that this country focus on putting those out of jobs back into jobs, even if that means putting them back into manufacturing, but we must never lose sight of the long term goal of making America a nation of ideas.
Which brings me to the point Erik made which struck said chord. Hawaii and Texas are two very different places, yes, but in order for America to make ideas there must be at least a consistent foundation between the two, and that is where I firmly believe the federal government must come in but does not. I don't mean that the federal government should establish certain literary canons or art pieces that must be studied or what have you, but there are certain basic skills - reading, writing, and mathematics, to name a few - which I feel each and every single American should be taught to acquire on an equal (and high) level. (Subjectively, I also think the American government should encourage its citizens to follow, at least to some extent, current events in the world, though I won't get into what that entails in this particular entry of rambling.)
This simply is not going on right now, and I think that's atrocious. All politicians stress the importance of education and many - many, many more than Bush, in fact - fail to deliver. I can not begin to stress enough, however, the true importance of a good education for all citizens, especially within the context of my ideal world of America as a nation of ideas. All children, whether they live in Hawaii or Texas or inner-city Philadelphia, whether they came out of the loins of a CEO in an affluent hospital or a thirteen-year-old girl in a bathroom stall, deserve and must receive an excellent education.
In my ideal world, give everyone in America a great education and all of the problems of the world will eventually sort themselves out. With a good education, people are more likely to end up in jobs where they will be prosperous. With a good education, most conflicts - which stem from misunderstanding - are averted. With a good education, fundamentalism will, hopefully, eventually die out, and with it the barrier to various cultural practices (gay marriage) and the development of many controversial but beneficial technologies and medicinal practices. With a good education, new ideas and technologies - genetically engineered crops which can grow in harsh conditions, simpler and easier methods of water purification, renewable energy sources, cheaper and better medicines - can be developed and put to great use in the third world, putting an end to much of the poverty and misery in these regions (which, as it so happens, is the instigator for fundamentalism and terrorism). Distribute these technologies to the third world to make their lives easier, and they can eventually stop worrying so much about whether they'll be safe in their homes or if they'll have enough food to see them through tomorrow, and they'll spend more time focusing on education themselves and the standard of living for all people will be even greater still...
I'm rambling, now, and I have to run and do things, but my point is that education is absolutely crucial, and the fact that Bush left every child behind is undoubtedly what pisses me off about him and his administration the most.
Perhaps I'll continue this later, but this will have to do for now.