Gallup: Congress Approval @ 12 Year Low

[Mark E. Smith]

Gallup News Service

PRINCETON - - Public approval of the job Congress is doing has dipped to its lowest level of 2006, and is now the worst Gallup has recorded since the closing days of the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.

According to an April 10-13, 2006, Gallup Poll, 23% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 70% disapprove. The current approval score is slightly below the 25%-27% range seen since January.

The current 23% approval rating for Congress is a near-record low for the institution. Gallup's trend for this question, which started in 1974, shows lower approval scores on only three other occasions: October 1994 (21%), March 1992 (18%), and June 1979 (19%).

http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=22435

[bdamomma]

1. this is a wake up call to these Senators and Representatives

to get their acts together. The disconnect between the US citizens and Senators is widening everyday.

[ECH1969]

2. Wow, Congress makes * look popular

That is pathetic.

[BR_Parkway]

3. 1994 was the "Republican revolution" under Newt, correct? 12 years

ago? Not to make a connection or anything. That'd be like saying 9-11, 9-11, Saddam, 9-11

[Tempest]

12. Yup

But what took Democrats 40 years to lose, Repugs are doing it in twelve.

[Bluzmann57]

4. Good news.

But in '04, when polls showed something we didn't like, people around here were howling about how rigged or whatever they were. Just sayin'.

[admsitio]

5. Learning on errors

The good thing is that every one can learn of the past.
Do you believe that we can learn of the past and not commit the same such errors in the future ?

[ckramer]

6. Congress = Republicans

IT's time for a change!

[davsand]

7. "They all stink except mine."

For most average voters it will often times go that way.

They will tell pollsters they are unhappy with Congress/ the President/ the Governor/ insert legislative entity here, but by the time they get to the voting booth that unhappiness is directed at the REST of those fools. They fall under the spell of the PR put out by the campaigns.

Th Dems as a whole have GOT to do a better job of demonstrating that it IS the main viewpoints held by the opposition that are so odious, rather than just that one guy they are running against.

To cite an example, look at Denny Hastert. We have all probably read at least some excerpts from that Vanity Fair article that talks about him selling his votes to the Turks. We all (here at DU, anyhow) pretty much accept as fact that he was taking a lot of dirty money from Abramhoff.

He's about as dirty as it gets.

The challenge of that campaign is to talk about that stuff and still remind people that it is the GOP culture of corruption that created Hastert.

Hastert is gonna go out and do the "God, Guns, Gays and Abortion" speeches, and unless the Dems keep it front and center that Hastert is a money slut selling out his voters, he'll win re-election AGAIN.

We can't assume that anyone will see the Dems as morally superior, we have got to demonstrate it again and again and again.

If we don't, then it will be a case of "Yeah, the rest of Congress sucks, but Denny brought home the pork for our district, and he's gonna let me keep my guns, so I'll vote for him again."

Multiply this by every race in the nation and you begin to see why polling isn't always an accurate predictor.


Laura

[Zorra]

9. Good point. Republican corruption and incompetence needs

to be hammered into the public consciousness.

This is why RW radio is so effective - every day the propagandists of the RW spout their lies over and over until the uninformed believe that the lies are truth.

[jbonkowski]

8. Unfortunately, at least one study also showed...

That a surprising amount of people don't even know that Republicans control both the House and the Senate. There are people who will vote Republican BECAUSE they think congress is doing a bad job, and they think they are voting for change.

Also, while I can't prove this, I am under the impression that most people don't blame their own congressman or senator for the low disapproval of congress as a whole. Thus little change in their voting habits based on the disapproval. They are expecting other people to get rid of their representatives, while they vote to keep their own.

Speaking of voting, it doesn't matter what your opinion is of Congress if you don't vote. They should have only included data on likely voters, or people who voted in the last election. Many people who don't vote love to complain about the government.

In other words, I don't think this survey means anything. At least, I am not convinced of that yet.

jim

[RDU Socialist]

10. and yet the incumbancy rate will still be in the high nineties

because everyone in this country has this radically stupid belief that "well congress as a whole sucks, but my congressman is a genius."

[aquart]

11. Maybe they should poll the corporations.

After all, it's their Congress, not ours.