We’ve all got that one major issue that we believe is the most important problem in the world. Maybe it’s the obstinately unmoving unemployment rate. Maybe it’s reforming Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. Maybe, like me, you believe that climate change needs to be addressed. Regardless of the issue, we isolate flaws in our system, holes in our otherwise near-perfect society, and we expect one of these holes to be the primary focus of our nation’s politicians and policymakers.

What’s President Obama doing engaging in a civil war in Libya when there’s huge debt back home? Why is the President more focused on social benefits when there is a tanking economy to fix? Why is our administration focused on all these short-term growing pains when our planet is in danger?

I believe that climate change is the most important problem confronting the 21st century populace. I think that every single politician should run on a platform centered on how they will avert the impending crisis that could occur from global climate change.

I want Congress to stop bickering about how to reduce our mountain of debt and start deliberating over ways to halt climate change in its tracks. But that’s not practical. We can sit back and criticize all we want, but the fact remains that politicians have extremely difficult jobs; they have to balance and manage an entire country. Focusing on one issue and ignoring all the others is not only political suicide; it’s downright dumb.

Say Prseident Obama (and the rest of the US government) does experience an epiphany and decides that he’s going to channel all of his efforts into passing legislation that would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions nationwide and provide billions in research grants to climatologists and scientists trying to fix global warming.

Environmentalists would rejoice. The Green Party would probably go wild. But the country would soon plunge into chaos, and all that legislation would mean nothing. Pumping billions into climate change takes away money that could be used to stimulate the economy, and it also increases our debt and hurts our social benefits programs.

And if President Obama’s only worrying about carbon dioxide, not only do some problems escalate, but existing problems don’t even get fixed. Not fixing unemployment would cause the unrest that produced Occupy Wall Street to proliferate, and not fixing our budget could threaten our country’s solvency where our credit rating has already been downgraded.

Presidents cannot be narrow-minded and have only one problem that they want to fix. The world is so dynamic and has so many moving parts; President Obama has to be able to deal with all of the problems that confront the nation.

He’s got all the obvious stuff to manage: flagging social benefits programs, unemployment, debt piled so high it causes vertigo, the environment. But he’s also got a myriad of other things to deal with. China is shrewdly cornering the market on platinum and other precious metals that will become integral in a futuristic energy economy.

Ignoring this and focusing on climate change or domestic unemployment could mean exorbitant energy costs for the US in the future. Obama’s got even more on his to-do list: with the Euro zone in crisis, he must figure out a contingency plan to save both American banks and American merchants that do business with Europe. The list continues with the War on Terror, US-Pakistan relations, adjusting to the Arab Spring.

Yes, the government is supposed to be responsive to the popular will, but if Obama acquiesced to his constituents’ demands and decided to ignore certain problems so he could focus on others, he would doom the country. Concentrating on domestic problems allows China to corner the precious metals market, potentially allows al-Qaeda to proliferate, could damage already fraying relations with Pakistan, and could foster anti-US sentiment among the newly liberated Arab nations. Focusing on foreign affairs dooms a US economy and does nothing to create jobs or reform the unsustainable social benefit programs.

Many of these problems are also entwined; a contingency plan for the euro that involves bailing out US banks would cause debt to rise. Pursuing sustainable energy could destroy jobs in conventional energy industries; then again, it could also stimulate jobs in green energy.

The War on Terror is a huge drain on the budget; not fighting it saves money but allows terrorist organizations to recuperate and mobilize. A good President has to be able to focus on all of these problems and know how to focus on none of them. He has to be able to bear public discontent and make tough decisions that will be hailed 10 years down the road as wise and prescient. And we have to understand that.

I have tremendous respect for politicians (well, most of them). The ones that aren’t embezzling funds and engaging in unscrupulous activity are usually working very hard to fix the country’s problems. Just because I don’t see the logic behind a certain policy or the reasoning behind a decision does not mean that it does not exist. Though I would definitely exercise my rights and not vote for them in the next election, I would refrain from mercilessly bashing their character and intent.

I would recognize that, as long as they weren’t corrupt, they were doing what they thought was best for the country. And that’s what we all have to realize.