I don't think people can make politicians accountable as long as primary incentives for those politicians are campaign contributions from corporations and wealthy donors. A politician only has motivation to do bare minimum not to lose elected office. As we have seen with CA governor - even utterly failed governance, mandate firings and senseless school closures do not sway the public enough. If _that_ can't do it, what else can? It seems that the only real way to vote in US is with your "legs" - i.e. move to another state (an option that countries like Austria do not even have :-( )