A President Harris Can Do Bipartisan Governance by Tapping Retired Officials as Advisers

Past and Present Living Presidents, Vice Presidents, and their first ladies at the funeral of former President George H.W Bush on December 2018 | Photo by the White House via Wikimedia Commons

Part XXXVI of the “United States 2024 Elections” Series

This column has suggested that Ms. Kamala Harris—as soon as she is officially declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election—should mandate that Joe Biden be officially called “President Emeritus.” Perhaps all the other living predecessors can also be called a distinguished group of “Presidents Emeriti.” In fact, it may be advisable to honor former vice presidents with the “Emeritus” title.

President Harris can designate the group composed of presidents emeriti and vice presidents emeriti as her “National Council of Advisers” (NCA). This “unpresidented” (sic, which former President Trump used in spelling, or lieu of “unprecedented”) move will show the world what a “United Nation” is really like. For sure, opposition parties in countries where dictators reign will use it as an argument for concrete changes in emulating the United States as the leader of the Free World and the biggest economy in the world.

As stated in my column last Wednesday, all American First Ladies could also be recognized by an Executive Order and requested to help Harris’s Administration. They can also be honored individually with the title of Emerita. For instance, First Ladies Emeritae Laura Bush and Dr. Jill Biden are recognized as experienced educators. Bush was a former public school teacher and librarian. Perhaps a troika composed of Dr. Biden, Bush, and the Secretary of Education (of a Harris Cabinet) can deal with states like Florida that banned classical books from public schools and city and county libraries. The troika can be the answer of President Harris’s Administration to the MAGA-Republicans’ campaign to eliminate the Department of Education as a federal institution.

President Harris can also recruit qualified members of the Lincoln Republicans, the Green Party, and Independents like the “Country First,” “Centrist Democrats,” and Reagan Democrats for choice positions in her Cabinet, Bureaus, Commissions, and even the Federal Reserve Bank.

Recognizing the Lincoln Republicans and Reagan Democrats will spell “doomsday” for the MAGA-Republican cult. This way, the true American version of DEMOCRACY will flourish — according to the intention of the founding fathers of the American Union.

It is also suggested respectfully that a Democratic presidential nominee, Harris, and her chosen vice-presidential bet should sign a “Covenant with the American People.” Part IV of this series discussed what the “Covenant” would include in detail, like adopting the Biden Back-to-Basics Doctrine suggested by this column. And which articles were compiled in the book “Mabuhay Writings 4 (Book 4), available at Amazon Books.

This column has also suggested to President Biden and his Administration the elimination of “Crony Capitalism” and replacing it on a synchronized schedule with “Cooperative Capitalism,” anchored on Cooperative Economics principles. It also means turning labor unions into “labor cooperatives” (that can own shares to elect at least a third of the corporate Board of Directors). Rural banks, many of which are now in financial difficulties, are also incorporated into credit unions. Healthcare Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) can also be turned into medical workers and patients’ co-ops. Hundreds of rural hospitals are now facing the probability of shutting down due to financial constraints and a lack of Board-certified medical workers. These distressed rural hospitals can also be turned into co-ops.

These suggestions can be implemented prudently and faster during Harris’s first term as president. Yes, especially with the cooperation of a bipartisan U.S. Congress and state legislatures. After all, the adage goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

These suggestions can bring back into focus and practice the much-respected dictum enunciated by President Abraham Lincoln — a government by, of, and for the people. Slowly but surely, the pro-people Cooperative Economics will force the end of cartels in industries like petroleum, oil, and gas OPEC-like Mafia, pharmaceuticals, transportation, and distribution centers. Yes, even the United States Postal Service can be reinvented into a cooperative owned by the postal workers and the mailing public. Thus, the public treasury’s annual bailout will end at the taxpayers’ expense.

It is suggested that the 2024 election be not only a triumph of democracy but also an overwhelming mandate to start fundamental structural reforms. The election of pro-people slates from the presidency down the ballot, including local elections, must be victories for the so-called “98% of American society” and not just for the filthy-rich billionaires and soon trillionaire (sic) tycoons. After all, their mega-corporate cartels can never be run 100% with just Artificial Intelligence. Robots do not eat anything. Robots do not buy consumer goods or pharmaceutical products, and they do not travel on jumbo jets, trains, and automobiles to take vacations and family (or school) reunions, weddings, and anniversaries. Right?

To his credit, President Biden is leaving a legacy of concrete achievements, especially in redeveloping the country’s infrastructures. More importantly, he crafted bipartisan conceptual frameworks of legislative and executive approaches to solving pestering problems such as poverty, illegal immigration, refugee crisis, homelessness, etc. But MAGA-Republican cult members keep on derailing bipartisan agreements with the House of Representatives, refusing even to carry out discussion in the session hall and meeting rooms of the U.S. Congress.