I don't know, I don't want to come in and appear as if I am trying to change things. You have done a good job of covering categories. It is just a matter of defining the categories. You have three major categories that this could effect, General Discussion, Social Discussion and House of Debates.
First suggestion I would like to make is perhaps you could add a Law and Ethics Forum under the General Political Discussion category and a Budgets and Appropriations Forum under the Social Discussions Section.
Then you have major issues such as Abortion, Military, Tax Reform, Welfare Reform, Social Security, Homeland Security, Death Penalty, Campaign Finance Reform, Foreign Policy and Immigration. There may be more but those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head that *somewhat* deserve to have a section dedicated to discussion. If you look at your current list you can see that these issues can float in numerous locations right now. That means that discussions are hard to follow. Perhaps what you could have is Sub Forums like you have under the World Politics Section.
All of these are debatable issues but could also be listed under Social Discussions. So I guess the first thing *you* need to decide is where you want them. General, Discussions or Debates.
If you were to decide to go with Sub Forums you could list Abortion and Death Penalty under Social Issues Debates.
You could list Tax Reform, Welfare Reform, Social Security under a Budgets and Appropriations Forum under the Social Discussions category.
Campaign Finance Reform would fit in either the Elections and Campaigns Forum or a new Law and Ethics Forum. I just feel having Law and Ethics Forum is an important category to include.
Military, Foreign Policy, Immigration and Homeland Security could go under the U.S. Politics section in the General Discussion category.
Admin, I don't want to have this be an issue. Take any or none of my suggestions. I think you have a diamond in the rough with this set of Forums. I just believe that tweaking what you have now while the site is still relatively new will alleviate having to sort things out later.
Just think about it. Sit back and look at the list you have with what I have mentioned here. You will probably come up with a much better idea. I'm new here and you have a much better idea of what you are trying to achieve. I guess I am just brainstorming a bit. I hope you don't mind.