I'm going to "go off" a little here, mainly because I'm trying to talk myself into something. I almost didn't even bother posting this.
can you kindly fill me in on the methodology? .. I'm hoping for a convincing argument that we are not already lost as a country
By actively taking responsibility. And don't wait for, or care about, any arguments as to the future. Whether or not your part of the country is lost, is a decision (not a discovery) that you make.
You see; I'm of the opinion that the government, particularly the federal government, has become so corrupted, so full of bad political influence by monied interests, so controlled by cash (particularly in light of Citizens United and other rulings that claim that money==speech), that the only way I can see to bring the country back to rationality is via armed conflict.
Consider what is required, for armed conflict to viably change policies. (Not counting the policy of over-reactive crackdown; I'll give you, that you can achieve that, if it's your goal. McVeigh was successful in further empowering the feds in this regard; yet another reason to hate him.) I think armed rebellion to end corruption, would require a whole bunch of people, who currently prove every two years that they don't care about anything, to start giving a fuck. And you can't aim gun at another person (especially when you know they're likely to point one back), without first giving a fuck, about what is going to happen next.
I think before you get even a fraction toward that level of giving-a-fuck, you'll be able to accept the lesser burden, of personally running for an office, or bothering to show up and vote for someone who does that, instead of using America's default algorithm (I think the programmer called it "negligentApathy 1.0"), which is "Whose ad budget was the highest, among those who have the correct letter next to his name? I'm voting for that guy." It is way easier to resign to your fate of having to be a US Senator, or a state district representative, or a city councilor, or a neighborhood association board member, or even a father, than it is to go risk your life sniping at people who are invariable better than you at that game. (And that's the hard version. It's even easier to not be that guy, but to write-in his name. And somewhere on the scale of difficulty between these things, is getting that guy onto a ballot so he doesn't have to be written-in.)
Once people get that far (where people vote or run, based on politics rather than ads), all the campaign advertising money in the world will be not quite useless, but nearso. If people give a fuck and become political, then money really will be speech: most of it wasted and dissolving in the uncaring winds, like us two here on Slashdot. Let them impotently spend their money buying television ads that nobody saw anyway. Your current problem isn't that they bought the ads; it's that anyone saw them, or used them for purposes of other than counting them to determine approximations of how badly a candidate must have sold out to someone.
If people start caring about politics, then you're never going to have to kill anyone, because long before then, you're going to get over the lower hurdle of your guys winning their first election. Not because you're a nice guy or because murder is bad, but because it's easier. Maybe not easy but easier than being a revolutionary soldier.
Or to put it another way: winning an armed conflict to overthrow corruption, would itself require some element of civic spirit. You can't achieve it, without passionate people. And once you have the people, you don't even need your guns anymore.
How do we get there? Here begins my bullshit (and I'm going to put some words in your mouth), but actually, I already told you this part.
First, think really hard about whether or not you have actually reached the point of giving-a-fuck. What I mean is, do you honestly care, a whole lot? You mentioned armed conflict, so think about whether or not you would be willing to participate in that (don't worry, you're not really going to have to do this part), and pick up your gun and get yourself killed by professoinals, without making the slightest strategic impact (since that's exactly what you know for certain, is going to happen, if you pick up your gun). Are you willing to make that personal sacrifice, because you're a patriot and this is really important to you?
Yes? Outstanding! I have good news for you. I'm about to ask you to pay a much lesser price.
Run for city council or mayor or state rep or any policy-making position. You. That is what I want you to do. And I want you to win, by talking to a bunch of people and making them realize that you are the right guy for this, not that guy who spent a lot of money on glossy postcards or television ads. You walk house to house, and use the cheap new thing (web) that your grandparents' politicians didn't have.
You. Not me, because I'm not sure I really give a fuck, yet. ;-) But seriously, this is the way. It just takes a bit more serious motivation than posting on Slashdot does.