You must be the change you want to see in the world. -Mahatma Gahdhi

I am excited about BlogHers Act. I am excited to be optimistic and excited to be hopeful about our collective ability to effect change both in the world and in this country. But I will only be able to maintain my hope, enthusiasm and optimism if everyone who votes on the issues for BlogHers to act on also commits to acting in her life to bring about the changes we want to see.

As this initiative was launched, I read a post from the incredibly inspirational Bonnie St. John who writes:

My suggestion at this point in time, after the Democratic debate and before the Republican debate, is take any frustration you feel about the pointlessness of the posturing, and funnel it into making personal change because that is real. As you continue to push yourself to be the change you want to see, you will feel even better about voting in the election because it is part of a process to vote every day, with every action that you take.

Every issue offered for consideration so far and the ones I'm about to offer will require a commitment to educating ourselves holistically on the issues, sustained commitment to seeing progress through and commitment to acting in our own lives in a way that is consistent with the values and the changes we say we want.

With that wish I offer poverty as my nomination for our global issue. Too many millions of people on this planet live in extreme poverty including in the United States. Poverty disproportionately affects women and children. Poverty results in lack of clean water to drink and sufficient food to eat. Poverty results in lack of access to health care. Poverty results in inadequate and unsafe housing. Poverty results in lack of access to education. Poverty results in despair. Poverty results in lives unfulfilled, lives cut short and death. It is simply unconscionable for us as a human family to tolerate this reality.

It's a difficult and complex issue to address, though. For instance how do we balance advocacy efforts vs. direct aid? How do we deal with political corruption and inefficient bureaucracies that hinder efforts to tackle the problem of poverty? Some groups working on this issue support the U.S. government's focus on providing direct food aid while others advocate for a focus on purchasing crops in developing countries. Both approaches have pros and cons. Whatever issue we focus on I hope there is an opportunity to dig deeply and grapple with the shades, the nuances and the trade-offs so we can strive for maximum efficacy when we act.

Undercover Black Man wrote this in a post about President Kennedy:

Does it seem like forever since we had a U.S. president who provided true moral leadership? Who could stir our souls with simple, straightforward language? Who could describe our national crises with clarity?

Sadly, yes it does.

For the voter manifesto, I want to focus on issues which the next president can meaningfully affect through leadership and the power of persuasion that flows from the bully pulpit. It's all well and good to talk about the policy specifics of what politicians say they will do but there's only so much the president can achieve directly. He or she has got to persuade congress, stand up to the corporate interests who write our legislation these days and rally the public. What I want from candidates is a commitment to leadership on these issues, a commitment to speaking out clearly, plainly and forcefully, a commitment to honoring their commitments, a promise to help us find our political will to act and support the sometimes painful, difficult and most of all scary changes that will be necessary. And, again, I want from all of you who participate in BlogHers Act a commitment to walking your talk.

My nominations for four issues for the presidential candidates to address are:

1. Universal Health Care. Not universal health insurance but universal health care. How are you going to ensure access to care not just the opportunity to buy insurance to everyone? The biggest barriers to UHC are the powerful lobbying efforts of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and other profit incented players in the health delivery system as well as the resistance to change from the majority of Americans who have some form of insurance, even if it is woefully inadequate, and are willing to stick with the badly screwed up devil of a system they know than to confront their fears of the big, bad bogeyman "socialized medicine" system we've been taught to adamantly oppose. I want to know how they are going to inspire the political will necessary to actually get us to demand, support and make this change because it will not be easy.

2. World Peace. Seriously. Our lame media who have completely abdicated their responsibility to actually hold politicians accountable to the truth constantly gives presidential candidates the opportunity to state how quickly they would attack, launch weapons and go to war. I want to know who is going to be the peace president, not the war president. Look, if we are attacked any American president is going to respond. I don't need to hear their quien es mas macho posturing on that. I want to hear how they plan to use diplomacy, love and not fear and engage in humanitarian efforts to restore our standing in the world.

This for me means that I am far more interested in knowing what they are going to do end the genocide in Darfur than I am in knowing if they would hypothetically drop a bomb on Pakistan if they knew Bin Laden was there. I want to know how they are going to encourage progressive movements in countries like Iran and North Korea so they will bring about their own non-repressive leadership and growth opportunities (thus reducing the attractiveness of the desperation of terrorism) rather than hearing about the candidates' willingness to go to war with the axis of evil.

3. Fiscal Responsibility. How are we going to find our way back to a balanced budget? Everything cannot be paid for by either eliminating the Bush tax cuts on those making over $200,000 or by stopping federal spending and pushing off everything on the states. The relentless borrowing we're doing to keep our federal financial house of cards from crumbling is a piper called China that will someday demand to be paid. We need a willingness to call for shared sacrifice. We need a willingness to veto out of control pork barrel and stupid unreformed policy spending (one of my big pet peeves: the farm bill). We need real leadership in sorting out policy priorities while addressing problems like maintaining Social Security, Medicare, health care and some kind of tax sanity (AMT elimination anyone?) I'm sick of the sound bites from both sides and I want to hear something that makes some kind of sense.

4. Restoration of the Constitution. George W. Bush has eviscerated the Constitution, has gone a long way to destroying the system of separation of powers and generally has snatched our inalienable rights from us and we either don't know that this is happening or worse don't care. The attacks he has made on habeas corpus alone are frightening and deeply offensive and contrary to what it means to be Americans led by presidents not ruled by kings. I want to hear from every presidential candidate exactly how they plan to give me my country back and restore my freedom (including what kind of thinkers they will appoint to the Supreme Court and I don't want to hear about litmus tests and the ridiculous sound bite term "strict constructionist") and not continue to suck it all away in the name of protecting me from terrorism. I'm way more afraid of a president with unchecked power than I am of terrorists.

So BlogHers and would-be presidents - make me believe. I'm not asking for too much, am I?