...is there no one in US politics capable of waking them up?

Everyone in US politics and the media is waking us up all the time. We're so sleep-deprived we can't think. But fortunately thousands of intelligent and highly educated people work all day long on shaping and implementing policy and marketing it to us. In order to communicate with each other without disturbing the marketing strategy, they speak in code. For example, they talk about trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and being a threat to its neighbors. I don't know what that's code for; I assume it has something to do with Iran's non-dollar oil bourse scheme and their government's popularity with the Muslim rank-and-file and the fact that in the event of a major war Iran couldn't be counted on to supply oil only to our allies; but all I really know is that it doesn't mean that they think Iran is developing nuclear weapons or would ever wage aggressive war.

By the way, I don't mean to be cynical... just inquisitive. And I don't think the people running our government are cynical. I think they want to do good, but they believe that you can't do good without power and so job number one is consolidating power, even if you do some not-so-good in the process. And I think they speak in code because they see us as little children who wouldn't understand certain things without a lot of explanation, and they're probably right about that.