Naivete might well be the single biggest factor in American politics and the demise of American institutions.

What if the American electorate is hopelessly naive?

The greatest adversaries we have are counting on exactly that.

Sadly, their bet is paying off in devastating ways.

Potentially irreversible damage to our public institutions, our public confidence, and our national self-respect, might already have been accomplished, resulting from the naivete with which the American electorate chooses its elected officials; empowers them with authority without appropriate oversight; and then falls back to sleep the day after an election, deluding themselves into believing a reliable new course has been set in motion as a result of a few replacements in the halls of government offices without a fundamental overhaul of our system of accountability and the public discipline with which that is managed.

We now know that very serious things are amiss in our public institutions and that our elected officials have not only failed to address very serious matters of concern effectively, but have contributed to undermining our own economy and national security with policies and programs that have empowered our enemies, weakened our global position, undermined our strategic advantages, and cost us the respect of the world.

Some argue that it is not reasonable for us to believe they will ever effectively and responsibly address the very serious issues and concerns that now face us, without overwhelming public pressure to do so.

The time has come for the electorate to organize themselves into action groups that hold their officials feet to the fire of a very real choice between meaningful effectiveness or termination of their careers. The time is long overdue for our public officials to be reminded, with very poignant demonstrations of meaningful and impactful action that affects their prospects for future employment, just who works for who.

It's time to lay aside our naivete and accept the reality that our public officials cannot be counted on to take us seriously, until more of them start losing their jobs for inattentiveness to our interests.

The very real threat of losing our votes, if they don't get past lip service and down to the very serious business of draining the swamp and addressing our interests, must be made unmistakably clear with results delivered by the electorate, in the form of lost elections.

One of the most important and impactful things we can accomplish, as an informed electorate, is to share with our elected officials the reality check that most of us now face, due to their ineffectiveness... that is, that each of them will wake up each morning with the very real awareness that no one's job is safe. Certainly not theirs.

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