You've been in enough of the Ron Paul threads to know that's what a lot of people see in him. If you don't see it in him though, I'm not going to convince you in this thread.
I disagree, though, with you assertion that they are really doing what they think is best for America. I think they make a compromise between what they think is best for both them (as an individual politician) and for the country.
If a politician was really doing what was best for America, he would basically get up on a podium and say something to the effect of "eat your vegetables." No voter wants to hear that, even though it's desperately needed in this country, so very few politicians say it.
Most people in this country know that something is wrong (we all see different things broken), and it is not getting better. We may not all agree on what it is, but I really wish the politicians reflected this enough to get up there and have a debate about what it means to eat some political veggies rather than just promising us more political candy and junkfood.