We hold the feds accountable for attempting to subvert the Will of the People. Hard, but since it's already common knowledge that they do it, not insurmountable.
It's easy to say you're going to hold them accountable but how do you do it? These people control the military, the police and the electoral system. They're not going to let you change it in any meaningful way without a fight.
Bernie proved that a non establishment candidate can win; they had to cheat to deny him. Another thing to hold the establishment accountable for.
Bernie proved the exact opposite. He proved that an anti-establishment politician can get enough votes to win but he'll still be cheated out of victory. The same thing happened to Ross Perot. As soon as he came close to winning his daughter was threatened and he dropped out of the race. After the election was over, the Commission on Electoral Debates changed the rules to exclude candidates polling under 15%, effectively barring third party candidates from debates. The establishment won't let you win democratically if they think you pose a real threat.
This country has been cheating and ripping itself off for generating and it's clear it isn't working. Campaigning on rooting out corruption- and then actually doing it once in office- would have the strong support of American citizens. The last election proved it.
It's not as simple as "actually doing it once you're in office". The intelligence community is totally unaccountable. It can tell and has told congress and the president to fuck off when it wants to. Elected officials are not going to fix this country because the system writes their paycheck and they profit off of the corrupt nature of the system.
The last election proved is that there's widespread popular discontent. The two anti-establishment politicians: Trump and Bernie both proved the futility of trying to change the system from within in their own ways. Trump sold out almost on day 1 and to the extent that he still tries to push through his anti-establishment policies he's blocked by the establishment, proving that even if you get to the presidency the establishment won't let you implement your agenda. Bernie was cheated out of the nomination, proving that if they think you're a big enough threat they won't let you win democratically.
lobbyists, corporate donors, establishment politicians, the military and the intelligence community ARE the corrupt entities and going after then would be the point. You might be amazed how many career officers inside those agencies would do everything they could to help the process; it's the leadership that's historically been the problem.
You're right, they are the corrupt entities. But they also have so much power over our government that they're almost indistinguishable from it. Saying we need to root out corruption sounds good as far as vague buzzwords go but there's no feasible way of doing it without totally restructuring our society which the elite won't let you do without a fight.
You must not know too much about the history of the CIA or you wouldn't be defending anyone who works for them. Torture, rape, murder, bribery, extortion, Mengele-esque experiments on American citizens and assassination are all in a days work for the CIA. The "intelligence community" is composed to a man of psychopaths and people who sold their souls to psychopaths for a paycheck. Lobbyists and corporate donors are not going to help end lobbying and corporate donations and the military will carry out the will of the establishment ~100% of the time. The establishment is your enemy. 100% of it. The good people who are a part of it only serve as cover for the bad.
There are a lot more Progressives running on platforms of ending corruption than ever before. The support is there. It would take another FDR moment but we've done it before. The signs are everywhere; look at what Represent.us got done in N Dakota.
Progressives are just as fucking corrupt as Republicans. I've been on both sides of the fence and the same anti-corruption rhetoric gets utilized on the right. It's a cynical ploy to get votes. Politicians realize people are fed up with how corrupt this country is but they profit off that corruption themselves so there's no logical reason to expect them to clean it up. Grassroots movements can very easily be coopted. What the FBI did to Occupy is a great example of how that happens.
You seem to be full of reasons why it won't work. What is YOUR solution? Just give up? Kinda lame, don't you think? Join the rest of us who are working to make things better or get out of the way.
I'm not arguing for giving up. My solution is a combination of accelerating social, economic and politic tensions, the formation of a vanguard party and the establishment of paramilitary groups. Eventually that would transition into other tactics when tensions are high enough and in the long term I'd like to see a revolution but that's probably a decade away at least.