According to Gallup polls released this month, American’s approval of the US Congress has dropped to a historic low of 10%. It’s hard to believe a nation would allow themselves to be ruled by a body that it disapproves of so strongly, but as yet there have been no street protests or riots as we have seen in other countries that have so dramatically lost faith in their governments.
Perhaps we put up with them because our dislike of Congress is only intense when we consider it in its impersonal, corporate form, and not as a group of men and women that we elect, and often continue to reelect.
Check the approval rating for an individual US Representative or Senator on their home ground and I guarantee you the number will almost always be well above 10%. Congress is inept, we seem to think, but our guy is one of the good ones. Maybe that’s because “our guy” knows what’s important to the people he represents, and is good at giving the appearance that those things are important to him too.
Would you like to represent Houston County in Washington? Make sure you’re a Republican, are against abortion, and support gun rights and the military. It’s also good idea to let everyone know how much you love Jesus. If you were running for Congress in, say, the San Francisco area, you’d probably want to have a whole other set of principles if you want to have a chance of winning there.
So what we end up with is a big group of men and women who come in with very different ideas about what the government should be doing. Yet somehow enough of them have to come together and agree on legislation if anything is ever going to get done. If they can’t do that, well, we end up with a Congress that is unable to do very basic things a legislative body must do, like pass a budget that doesn’t bankrupt the country.
Which is, of course, exactly where we are today, and that explains why most of us have a very dim view of that particular branch of government. It seems to be broken beyond repair.
Perhaps we put up with them because our dislike of Congress is only intense when we consider it in its impersonal, corporate form, and not as a group of men and women that we elect, and often continue to reelect.
Check the approval rating for an individual US Representative or Senator on their home ground and I guarantee you the number will almost always be well above 10%. Congress is inept, we seem to think, but our guy is one of the good ones. Maybe that’s because “our guy” knows what’s important to the people he represents, and is good at giving the appearance that those things are important to him too.
Would you like to represent Houston County in Washington? Make sure you’re a Republican, are against abortion, and support gun rights and the military. It’s also good idea to let everyone know how much you love Jesus. If you were running for Congress in, say, the San Francisco area, you’d probably want to have a whole other set of principles if you want to have a chance of winning there.
So what we end up with is a big group of men and women who come in with very different ideas about what the government should be doing. Yet somehow enough of them have to come together and agree on legislation if anything is ever going to get done. If they can’t do that, well, we end up with a Congress that is unable to do very basic things a legislative body must do, like pass a budget that doesn’t bankrupt the country.
Which is, of course, exactly where we are today, and that explains why most of us have a very dim view of that particular branch of government. It seems to be broken beyond repair.
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