American Catholic Political Issues ... what's important? - Part I

So I have been sitting at work going over different files, and I started to think (which is dangerous, trust me) about what are the really IMPORTANT issues that we as American Catholics face in our social-political-religious lives? As we enter election and voting season, I think it is vital that we take notice and call to mind what is important.

I don't want to be too broad in categorizing these issues, as appear to be OVER-INCLUSIVE, but I also don't want to be too specific and seem "one issue orientated."

1. Abortion/Pro-Life: I know that 'Life' issues are paramount. I think that undeniably, more Catholic Theologians and Scholars would agree that defeating the Culture of Death in our country is critical, and may trump almost any other issue. It also bleeds into other issues and touches upon a lot of other issues.
2. Family Matters: This "issue" labeled as such is a little broad, but it is the best term to encompass all the issues that I think are important. For example, marriage, child law, divorce, cultural/political thought and policy, and even media and social construction. A lot of the religious laws/voting issues tend to fall under this category as well. The Pro-life issue also lends itself to this topic. (Do you see a pattern forming?)
3. Education: Not all of us are in school or have someone that we are responsible for that is in school, but at some point this issue was important to us. It is also an issue that will most likely be an important issue for us down the road, if it currently isn't on our radar. It of course touches upon Family Matters and the Culture of Life v. Death, and ties together.

Now there are a few that are clearly left out: Economics/Financial, Health Care, "Social Justice"; this was not inadvertent, and they didn't "just barely miss the cut." The fact that I left them out is intentional. See, I realized that those three topics are 3 very important and critical areas that we as American Catholics, or in the very least Christian Americans should concern ourselves with when it comes time to vote. The other issues will seemingly fall into place if we decide correctly on the first three.
I am going to make this post a multi-part series. So I wont expound too much, but I hope to show over the course of a few posts how these issues are what we need to think most heavily about. If we figure those out, the rest will be much more clear to us, and be easier to make our mind up about.
The sneak preview to the ANSWER or theory behind this is that these issues are the core and center of our lives and our FAITH! You see, these issues are addressed in the 10 Commandments of the Old Testament, and the 9 "New Commandments" of the New Testament. Sure, there are issues in politics that I didn't mention which we could align with the commandments, but again these issues are a kind of outline for how we should focus our thoughts on politics. Now, to be honest, I may revise this down the road a bit, I know that sometimes we can change how we think about things, but I really feel these are the big 3.
To keep in line with the theme of this blog, I want to briefly address one other point. That point is the fact that when evil or even non-catholic/christian opponents want to attack the way we as American Catholics try to live our faith, they attack us THROUGH those issues. For example, when they want to oppose life, sure they use "health care" as we see in the most recent debate over reform, but it isn't that health care itself is a catholic v. non-catholic issue. Instead, the crux of the question or problem is over the sanctity and respect for innocent life. To them it isn't about health care, they only say that because it frames the debate in a way that makes an opponent of their plan, look like an opponent of health care. Likewise, when education issues come up regarding sexual orientation, curriculum, etc., the issue isn't framed on the core question, it is framed in terms of "Education." That opponents of whatever wacky plan on the table, us Catholics, are trying to "oppose educational reform/progress/fill the blank with a buzzword." So you see, that is how evil works. The worst perpetrator of all of this is of course the entertainment industry, which I can't even begin to get into here. In the end though it again attacks through these avenues, in an attempt to forward some other agenda, all the while making Catholics/Christians look like enemies of "progress."