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I wish I knew the answer. This would be a much easier problem to solve if it only involved corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, Obama, Boehner, and the rest of the corrupt and clueless on both sides of the aisle are merely symptoms of the disease eating away at America. As you correctly pointed out, the disease itself is the significant portion of the electorate who are motivated by everything from "Obama phones" to "climate change", and every ridiculous thing in between. The bottom line is that too many Americans are simply not serious people, and it's frightening.

Glenn Beck once had an author on (whose name escapes me) who wrote about "the normalcy bias." He spoke about how many people will die in emergency situations, like a plane crash, because they fail to grasp the dire circumstances surrounding them and act accordingly. They refuse to acknowledge their actual situation, and instead act as if everything is OK (the normalcy bias).

We all talk to people every day who are deeply infected with the normalcy bias. Even people who agree with us about public policy and the state of the country fall victim to it as they allow the activities of everyday life to lull them into a false sense of normalcy. It is really difficult to get enough people to stand up because we have so many distractions, and to stand up for what is right might mean losing something ("stuff", relationships, job, etc.) as a result. But if we don't stand up in a real, tangible way soon we will reach a point where we won't have much left to lose anyway.

And maybe that's what it's going to take. Maybe the clueless idiots among us will only learn their lesson once they've tasted the bitter fruit of their choices. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to underestimate the foolishness of a large segment of society.