1. Global climate change
2. Economic justice, at home and abroad. We must address the reality of the unlevel playing field, and move away from the idea that the free market magically fixes everything.
3. Social justice and social freedom: women's reproductive freedom and the right to marry anyone you choose. We need a leader that will help move us past the malaise and divisiveness of this culture war we are trapped in.
4. The national debt / deficit spending.
5. Global climate change. Sorry, but it's a biggie, and thought of electing officials from a party that still denies it is beyond terrifying. This is the one that renders everything else moot in about fifty years. Who wants to tell their grandchildren they knew and did nothing?

Your five issues are mine, but I've abandoned the idea that any POTUS can or will try to solve any of them. We in the U.S. have to stop waiting for leaders and do the work ourselves. Want to solve #1, for example? Take the small actions needed to improve the economy and encourage everyone you know to do the same. On the job, don't do the work of two because that leaves another person unemployed; when shopping, buy in places where the money you spend will be spent in your community; in the voting booth, focus instead on electing a good mayor or governor,or passing a good initiative. It's here where the changes will come that you will see and benefit from. These small improvements in your well-being (and in your neighbors') will make you more hopeful as a result, then more willing to make bigger changes.

I agree with Runaway that we have to hold elected officials' feet to the fire. Democracy was founded as a social experiement. It is up to us, Americans to engage our representatives and legislators as well as our neighbors, friends and family. I think the #1 thing that our three branches of government needs to do: Admit that the American way of life is not sustainable and is hurting the rest of the globe. From that framework, lets have real debates about the intersections of economic justice, social justice and global warming: human trafficking, labor and educations issues, indigenous reparations, ending wars for profit and oil, stopping corporate campaign financing and corporate exploitation in the global south, and sharing technology and resources to address global health disparities. Its time for collective responsibility for those who come after us and spirited gratitude for those who came before us.

I agree with Runaway too. Apropos of his ideas for the economy, there is an overwhelmingly strong case for ending agricultural subsidies and investing them in small, diverse farmers, or even just in the deficit. The health problems caused by agribusiness' cheap and antibiotic filled food; the humanitarian issue of treatment of animals; preventing future crop failure from disease by increasing crop diversity; the environmental damage from soil erosion, artificial fertilizer, and methane pollution; the utter failure of artificial pesticides in the long term; competition with local farmers at home and worldwide; how "golden rice" turned out not to help much and just be a way to rake in more cash; the amount of jobs small farms would create; THE FACT THAT AGRIBUSINESS ACTUALLY PRODUCES LESS FOOD PER ACRE and is by no means the best way to feed the hungry!

Phew! ...it's even kind of an immigration policy issue, because of all the undocumented workers they employ. So why aren't people talking about it? :P :P :P

OHH and forgot to add shipping NJ tomatoes to Ohio and then back again. Gasoline payed for by tax payers!

I was similarly wondering why ending agricultural subsidies didn't make your list. Seems to me that it should be a critical part of any serious Presidential candidate's platform.

Interesting points regarding agribusiness Mormious. I'm not sure if you've heard of the equitable food initiative by Oxfam America but I think it's worth checking out. I attended a talk by them and their goal is to also end farm subsidies and encourage small scale farming. Instead of creating a lobbying group to push for those issues though, they instead focused on the food safety benefits of adopting their practices and started working with retailers such as Costco. I admire their approach for not being so naive as to think they can "beat" big box retailers and instead realizing they need to work with them.

http://www.equitablefood.net/

Sorry if I co-opted this into an agriculture discussion brent.

@Mark2: the key word there is "should". If you're talking about a serious presidential candidate as in "serious about winning" (and satisfying the sponsors), then no I don't see agriculture policy becoming a major issue in this election cycle. Hopefully next?

@Dundonian: This sounds good. I gather from their website that their standards are still in the works. They talk about tackling pesticides and animal waste. I don't see them talking about subsidies though?

@Mormoious - I think their mentality on this is that they'll never defeat big lobbyist interests so why even bother. Their goal I believe is therefore instead of tackling subsidies head on to instead push for small farming and to support it in currently developing nations where big agribusiness has yet to get a foothold.

Morimous et al - The fact that issues like curbing agricultural subsidies never gets talked about during the presidential election is more or less the point of my string. There is at least some debate about the budget crisis and the economic malaise, for example, but I don't hear much of anything about global climate change (because nobody wants to talk about it), the war in Afghanistan (let the fact that we don't talk about this at ALL sink in for a moment), and immigration. Unbelievable.

I find myself wondering why this is the case. I keep coming back to this gloomy conclusion: our politicians are reflective of us - the Americans - and we, bottom line, don't care about all this stuff. Somebody tell me that's not the case. Please. Seriously.

Morimous et al - The fact that issues like curbing agricultural subsidies never gets talked about during the presidential election is more or less the point of my string. There is at least some debate about the budget crisis and the economic malaise, for example, but I don't hear much of anything about global climate change (because nobody wants to talk about it), the war in Afghanistan (let the fact that we don't talk about this at ALL sink in for a moment), and immigration. Unbelievable.

I find myself wondering why this is the case. I keep coming back to this gloomy conclusion: our politicians are reflective of us - the Americans - and we, bottom line, don't care about all this stuff. Somebody tell me that's not the case. Please. Seriously.

@Brent I don't think Politicians are reflecting the public well at all! There has been a very low approval rating of congress recently, for both parties. I think most Americans are thinking "blegh I hate both these guys, but I guess I'll vote for this one because he's not as bad as the other". I think Obama's policies have been an improvement on some of the issues, but not others, and he generally allows the reps to set the agenda. It concerns me that he's either not that liberal, or a sellout. We need a third party NOW.

@Dundonian I think that for a business, that is a good approach, but consumers could be doing much more on their part. Most people in the US live pretty close to the nearest farmer's market. There are also restaurants that prefer fresh local produce, so those need to be supported. The best thing I think is to lobby your local school board to start buying local produce as well, as many many towns have already done. I think the most common issue for consumers is the notion that organic food is more expensive. Fact is, that's not always true in a farmer's market, and conventional food carries an invisible price tag of subsidies and future health costs. We need to raise awareness of these things.