I think I found something like a happy medium between caring too much or complete resignation. I've decided to ignore politics altogether and just concentrate on my own community, at least until/if I move to NH. I help run a food bank, and I've convinced a lot of my friends to stop considering the government as a means for solving their problems. And I've got almost all of them using bitcoin and/or precious metals.
One of the biggest problems is that it's almost all people my age and younger who listen. Our parents and older friends? Forget it. My dad voted for Ron Paul in the primary but now he's convinced that anyone who doesn't vote for Romney is a secret Muslim extremist. The hardest part has been for me to stop caring about my parents enough to try to convince them.
But anyway, my point is, there's always SOMETHING you can do to help make yourself and your neighbors more free. It doesn't make the frustration go away, but it takes the edge off sometimes.