Epic Fail: Congress Gets 11% Approval Rating
A few days ago, just before Congress passed its financial regulatory overhaul, Gallup conducted this poll, whose results were just released. America’s confidence in Congress is at an all time low. According to Gallup, Congress only has an 11 percent approval rating. 11 percent!
Of the 16 institutions Gallup rated—from churches and public schools, to big businesses and banks!—Congress came in dead last.
Politico’s Glenn Thrush reacted to the poll on twitter, writing, “No doubt people hate congress--but 11 percent approval? How many of those people even know who their rep is?”
To Thrush, it’s the people, not his handlers on the Hill, who must be wrong. Does liberal condescension have a limit, as Victor Davis Hanson eloquently asks in this Ricochet post?
Though our confidence in Congress is at a historic low, don't be surprised if it sinks even lower.
Yesterday, a major financial reform bill was signed into law. The bill didn't touch Fannie and Freddie. It leaves taxpayer funded bailouts on the table (watch the second half of this WSJ video, which explains how). And with its 500+ new regulations, it ensures that corporations and businesses will have to hire armies of workers to ensure compliance with the law. The SEC itself announced that it must hire 800 new workers to fulfill its mandates under the law.
And today, Congress is expected to move forward on extending unemployment benefits, which will only stimulate unemployment, not the economy, as the WSJ points out.
I wonder what Gallup’s poll would have looked like if it would have been taken tomorrow, thus accounting for these two new pieces of legislation.
Looks like it's going to be a bloody Tuesday, come November 4th.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Epic Fail: Congress Gets 11% Approval Rating
Such an obnoxious condescending comment by Thrush. It reveals real contempt for the nation that exists outside the Beltway. In so many ways Politico itself is a symptom of the disease.
May '10
Re: Epic Fail: Congress Gets 11% Approval Rating
Of course none of this applies to Alan Grayson. He is working tirelessly to save starving children from Republican clutches:
http://www.breitbart.tv/dem-congressman-charges-republicans-are-starving-children/
Jun '10
Re: Epic Fail: Congress Gets 11% Approval Rating
Emily: You mentioned VDH's excellent take on liberal condescension. His is great.
There is another excellent article on the same topic that was published in, of all places, the Washington Post. It's by Gerard Alexander, a professor at the U. of Va entitled "Why are Liberals so Condescending." You can find it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020403698.html?sid=ST2010032603968
It's excellent.
May '10
Re: Epic Fail: Congress Gets 11% Approval Rating
The comment from Thrush is irrelevant anyway (condescending though it is) since Gallup asked if people approve of "Congress," not "your Congressperson". In fact, that's one source of the trouble. We can lose faith in Congress as a group, or as an institution, but we can only act on the individual representing our district. People dislike Nancy Pelosi, but most never get to vote for or against Nancy Pelosi.
My own rep, Anna Eshoo, doesn't make the news much. She survives in part because people don't hear much about her, and indeed may not "know who their rep is." That invisibility keeps her out of the line of fire.
It may take disapproval at these historic levels to get people to punish their particular rep for the misbehavior of the group.