I think it has to do with the type of personality. People that excel in politics are backstabbing, dishonest, disloyal, power hungry assholes. Not a place for for the typical do-gooder to get a foothold in. From what I understand, if someone in politics doesn't play 'the game' they are pushed to the back benches and can't do anything.

How true... and eventually they resign because no good can come of their ideals.

I say bring back the good ol' days of hereditary rule...that should solve the problem...

In all honesty though, George Washington (and his Cabinet) are often considered the best of America's presidencies...and the key difference between him and his successors is that Washington didn't really want to be president...

They wanted to build a robust nation back in the day, the cult of self over others would come later.

So you've met our former Illinois Governor? He excelled in all that, but not in covering it up.

Back in the day we did have our share of swindlers. They often got tarred and feathered. Then they got smart and stopped selling snake oil and started selling promises.

We still have clean elections in the U.S., so the real people to blame are the citizens who keep returning 'despicable' people to office. 

The truly vexing irony for many political scientists is that long-term opinion research shows a consistent cognitive dissonance between assessments of individual members of Congress and Congress as a whole. Currently, a vast majority hold Congress in extremely low regard, but a majority are also satisfied with the House and Senate members who represents them.

p.s. Even today, there are relatively honest 'do-gooders' in office at all levels, especially in local governments. At the federal level, they are few in number and don't get much press because they are not active in the rhetorical trench warfare that has replaced civility in both houses of Congress. Our media (of all sorts) should probably get the second biggest share of blame because chasing ratings/sales has trumped quality investigative reporting for decades now.

I actually correspond regularly with my senators and until the housing crisis got regular, real replies back--now I get form responses.

Interestingly, the Republicans were always quick to respond and it wasn't uncommon not to hear back from the Democrats--now it's reversed.  I hear from the Democrats and not the Republicans.

If you want to have a real impact other than starting a public campaign, watch for the times your representative has set aside for local matters in your area.  Often they will have a small office and be open there for a day or two every month or so.

Call there office to make an appointment either way.  That really gets their attention.

1) Until they check your credit rating.

2) The Secret Service's too.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Never employ those who seek power but those who do not wish it yet can handle the responsibility.

On a side-note, 

The world is run by puppets on strings, nothing is what it seems, shadows behind every corner, there is no escape, those who resist will be eliminated, those who know the truth will be silenced. 
The world is run by puppets on strings, the shadows who move them are in plain sight, but all do not see

People often do not heed warnings, instead disregard them as ravings of a mad-man. Seems pointless to speak year after year, yet still hope lingers.

I have my cynical moments far more often than I'd like, but your credit rating is a moot point in this context. Staffers will check to see if you are a regular correspondent and how often you vote. They understand that word of mouth is still an important 'marketing' channel.

The spooks are hopefully irrelevant, and the Secret Service would only come into play if you were writing to the president. 

GW Swicord - I don't know in which universe do you live, but it can't be this one. Voting ceremony is just a charade - in case you haven't noticed, your "elected representatives" are bought with corporate money before, or shortly after they come to office. That's why you can get over 20 year in prison for copyright infringements, while for starting a war that kills hundreds of thousands of foreign civilians, you are not even prosecuted. Those "do-gooders" are just a bunch of hypocrites, and in a system whose official propaganda is "greed is good", I would not expect anything else.

Even today, they babble about pipe dreams like "sustained economic growth", while more then 80 percent of fish in the oceans are dead, the rest is poisonous, the oil is dwindling and humanity is about to experience a massive die-off from population overshoot. And all thanks to gullible sheep who do not do their homework and just follow the flock.

I try to do my homework, it's just the the choices are typically so darned poor and the information is so darned slanted.

Humor, GW Swicord, humor. Haven't seen any black helicopters. Certainly none I'd admit to publicly. 

Also very true.

We share the same universe, but I'm tired to the bone with broad-brush rants, sweeping generalizations, and excessive wallowing in anger. I never said a thing to imply that there is no problem with the role that campaign finance plays in our system--Citizens United v. FEC is possibly the worst Supreme Court decision handed down in my lifetime. I've long wanted Buckley v. Valeo overturned and public financing established for campaigns at all levels of gov't. We shouldn't have to suffer Mad Ave technology during campaign season. The people who profit from broadcast licenses and local cable monopolies owe the public a generous chunk of air time for solo talking-head presentations from candidates and actual debates among candidates (not the current mode of cross-talking, scripted sound-byte fests). 

What I'm truly sick of hearing is absolute rejection of both the possibility and reality of democratically elected leaders who are dedicated to public service and not simply self-serving opportunists. This toxic rhetorical environment is not new, but it got a Titan IV-sized boost back when Saint Reagan villainously claimed that "government is the problem." Things will not get better until enough folks get over their favorite rants and get back to the messy, difficult, never-quite-satisfying work of forging compromises between competing interests in civil society.