In my mind, a lack of real alternatives is the biggest problem in America. When I type "alternatives", I mean better choices within every level of our government, economy, and society.
Within the government, we need to get out of the two party system. We're tired of picking the lesser of two evils. Duverger's law has shown that a winner-take-all democracy will typically go towards two party systems and limit choices. It's the issue of tactical voting; people are afraid to "waste" their vote on the candidate they want, so vote for who they think can win. The solution would be to have a ranked voting system, like single transferable voting, where you can give "partial" votes to multiple candidates.
Single transferable vote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This doesn't necessarily increase the number of alternative candidates, but validates them as realistic choices when you vote.
Within the economy, we need to have more options in employment. Capitalism is often touted as being all about constructive competition, eg. consumers will go to a business' competitor if they have more varieties, better quality, cheaper prices, etc. But, this only fixes the consumer side of the economy. When there aren't enough jobs to go around, there is no "competition" for employees. There is no incentive for employers to pay themselves less, pay their employees more, or to create jobs. The way the rich are concentrating the wealth away from both the consumers and the average employees, there can never be real competition. We're like rats fighting over crumbs; We might get lots of choices in the shapes and flavors of the crumbs and be told that it's capitalism at work, but in the end they're just crumbs. Although I'm typically for the reduction of government regulations, I'm definitely for CEO caps and an increase in the minimum wage; this is one area where capitalism has failed the American people.
From the aspect of society and the 1st amendment, we have all sorts of choices. We can read anything, watch anything, say anything, etc. But, there is still a very big problem with self publishing and the way "traditional" media has shut themselves off from newcomers. Although anyone can blog and twitter and text whatever the hell they want, including their dislike for our two party system or failures of capitalism, that is the extant of our abilities to express our 1st amendment rights. Until I find that million dollars I left lying around in my sock drawer, I can't buy the rights to air a political ad on nationally broadcasted television or radio. Right now, the internet is essentially the only place a regular guy can publish his ideas. Since we the people own the airwaves in the end, the government should set aside some time just for independent political groups to air their grievances without having to pay these astronomical advertising fees. It's one thing for them not to give a crap about one crazy guy screaming on the street corner, but entire political parties are essentially silenced by having been bought out of the process. We can't care about alternatives that we don't know about.
So, we really need alternatives. Without the ability to have real competition between candidates, jobs, and ideas, we will never have the chance to make the right choice.