It is noteworthy that the best Congress in forty-five years has a record low approval rating from the country. I wonder if Congress will ever be popular again. In difficult economic times it is understandable that people are not happy with their government, but I don’t think the economy really explains why people hate Congress. I think they hate Congress because Congress doesn’t do what anyone wants them to do, and because people are much more aware of how Congress works than they used to be. People really don’t like how Congress works. They don’t like compromise. They don’t like the trading of favors. They don’t like cheap rhetoric. They don’t like the other side getting anything that they want. Basically, people hate politics and politicians. And they hate them now more than ever. But I don’t know that we’ll ever actually like them again.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Is there a breakdown by party? Do Democrats feel much differently than Republicans about Congress(Especially the one just completed)?
There is a constant drumbeat against “partisan bickering” among candidates of both parties and across the news media. “Partisan bickering” is what a functioning democracy sounds like. A lot of people are tired of democracy and do not understand how one works, either practically or theoretically.
I don’t know that it’s universal but folks around here consider the “partisan bickering” label to the sort of spinning and procedural bickering that both sides use to obscure a real debate about the merits.
There are indeed folks from the right, the mythical center, and the left who are tired of democracy and would like an autocratic President to make the decisions for them. That was why W was not immediately dismissed as an idiot full of hubris; he postured as an “humble” take-charge sort of guy.
What people hate the most is fraternity-style power politics for the sake of one-upsmanship, not getting anything done.
And truth be told, the folks who put together the Constitution were not optimistic about whether people could government themselves. It was a big theoretical enterprise that just happened to advantage people like them.
Never said universal. If people around you care about procedural bickering, you live in DC, because polls have shown repeatedly nobody else cares about procedure. On the other hand, “spinning” is another name for rhetoric. If that upsets the people around you, they are the folks I am talking about.
Most of the yearning I see for an autocratic President is and always has been on the right. The sophisticated corporate center, especially big media, seems more bored by democracy than yearning for its end. One thing they love is a show of fraternity-style power politics, frequently the form of it as much as any substance. As far as I can tell, the Leninists are gone from the US. At this point, I think it is fair to say that the liberals are mostly conservative, and the conservatives are mostly fascist.
Democracy worked pretty well for quite a while, and was nicely strengthened by the New Deal, which gave people a sense of participation in government, and thus some control over their own lives. In the last 40 years, there has been erosion both intentional and unintentional of respect for democracy and the rule of law, including denigration of Congress. This favors those who wish popular participation ill, in part by damaging democracy’s standing among those who most benefit from it.
Boo, you missed the mark on this one.
The major reason people hate congress is that Americans do not like to be lectured to. Particularly they don’t like a lecture from people whom they KNOW are whiney ass little titty babies. Add to that the fact that Americans hate (with the power of a thousand suns) to be lectured to by wealthy money grubbers and you have the essence of why congress is despised.
They get lectures from mostly rich whiney ass little titty baby money grubbers that never, EVER have to do what the average would consider ‘work’.
Even the poorest among them gets so many freebies, perks, and such a large salary that they are far wealthier than what most experience.
I fucking hate them all. I always have, I always will. They are 90% assholes, and the remaining 10% are pricks.
nalbar
Name me a historical period in which Congress was ever popular. Even Benjamin Franklin cussed the Continental Congress. People don’t like the trading of favors (what used to be called “logrolling”) but they are OK with authentic compromise. They definitely don’t like cheap rhetoric; that was what Jesse Helms played off of: “You might not agree with Jesse but you know where he stands.” Most people don’t think in terms of “the other side” except in hyper-partisan eras, which the Eisenhower administration and the Kennedy administration were not. People were more tolerant of Congress then. Even Democrats used to enjoy the Ev and Charlie Show, when Everett Dirksen and Charlie Halleck would present the Republican position on issues.
Right now what people hate more than anything else is the acrimony.
People hate congress because they perceive (accurately) that the outcome of the legislative process is determined by conflict between interests rather than conflict between ideas. Given that “interest” is often just a synonym for “money”, the whole procedure is what most people would call-by definition-corrupt.
People hate Congress because they perceive that Congress is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporations.
People hate Congress for not having all those things Movies, Music videos, e.t.c.