Congress approval rating is 5%

[DCL]

why is it still so high? so 5% of the people in this country approve of getting buttfu-ked by their government?? :confusedshrug:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/congress-approval-rating_n_4069899.html

[miller-time]

why is it still so high? so 5% of the people in this country approve of getting buttfu-ked by their government?? :confusedshrug:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/congress-approval-rating_n_4069899.html

Cognitive dissonance is extremely powerful man, never count it out.

[DCL]

it would be great if these clowns in congress get the fat boot by the voters for the next term, sending a loud message to policymakers to respect the rights of the people, but sadly, i don't think that's going to happen. our democracy is viewed largely as just a myth. the bold idea that our country is "run by the people and for the people" is a load of shit.

[PejaNowitzki]

it would be great if these clowns in congress get the fat boot by the voters for the next term, sending a loud message to policymakers to respect the rights of the people, but sadly, i don't think that's going to happen. our democracy is viewed largely as just a myth. the bold idea that our country is "run by the people and for the people" is a load of shit.


Yeah Congress as a whole has a 5% approval rating but people approve of their own representatives at a far higher level in poll after poll. Basically people will bitch about the state of the country, but they give their own Congressional and Senate representatives high marks, especially if they are bringing home the bacon, they just don't like it when other people's Congressional Representatives and Senator's are bringing in the bacon, hence why you see such low overall approval ratings for Congress as a whole but yet you see such high re-election percentages.

People have tunnel vision, they hate Congress as a whole but like their own representatives and keep voting for them and nothing changes.

[MMM]

it would be great if these clowns in congress get the fat boot by the voters for the next term, sending a loud message to policymakers to respect the rights of the people, but sadly, i don't think that's going to happen. our democracy is viewed largely as just a myth. the bold idea that our country is "run by the people and for the people" is a load of shit.

How much blame do "the people" share in that though???

[Ass Dan]

Congress will never change too much, the districts have been gerrymandered so much in the last decade and a half that both parties are guaranteed X amount of seats. Gridlock for the foreseeable future.

Shit's broke. We always like to brag about our system, our constitutions and our freedoms, but the reality is much of the world has caught and passed us, kind of like our infrastructure.

[Godzuki]

Yeah Congress as a whole has a 5% approval rating but people approve of their own representatives at a far higher level in poll after poll. Basically people will bitch about the state of the country, but they give their own Congressional and Senate representatives high marks, especially if they are bringing home the bacon, they just don't like it when other people's Congressional Representatives and Senator's are bringing in the bacon, hence why you see such low overall approval ratings for Congress as a whole but yet you see such high re-election percentages.

People have tunnel vision, they hate Congress as a whole but like their own representatives and keep voting for them and nothing changes.


its mostly some small demographic areas where they have heavy tea party based voters who support and elect the government obstructionists, while the rest of the country can't do much about it. its not really everyones fault. And those elected officials are going to be reelected based on causing this type of obstruction to appease their tea party base, so they have nothing to lose.

that said there are swing areas where this will hurt Republican seats if they lose reelection, which hopefully prevents them from being able to pull stunts like this in the future. the Republican party as a whole will just lose a lot of their power to do much.

also not sure how accurate that rating is since i would had sworn the Wall Street Journal poll done like yesterday had them at 24%~ still cause for mass panic within their party tho.

[OldSkoolball#52]

How much blame do "the people" share in that though???


Most of it. But thats not a popular message so you'll never see a liberal delivering it. They thrive on creating helpless victims who believe they need more government and more assistance to get by.

[Godzuki]

Most of it. But thats not a popular message so you'll never see a liberal delivering it. They thrive on creating helpless victims who believe they need more government and more assistance to get by.


there are lots of people who find themselves suddenly unemployed in this economy, or disabled for whatever reasons that could not survive without government assistance. Just because you don't directly see it in your every day life, and some cases of people abusing it doesn't mean some people don't need that stuff, or it couldn't happen to you suddenly. 'Liberals' realize this.

Not saying there are government programs that should be cut but some Republicans, and especially Tea Party REpublicans take it to a retard extreme. lol @ tea party wanting no government agencies....no FEMA, no HWA, No board of education, etc. etc. :facepalm the other thing that really bothers me is they always try and justify our massive military budget like that shouldn't be cut at all....and then lecture Dem's about spending.

[PejaNowitzki]

its mostly some small demographic areas where they have heavy tea party based voters who support and elect the government obstructionists, while the rest of the country can't do much about it. its not really everyones fault. And those elected officials are going to be reelected based on causing this type of obstruction to appease their tea party base, so they have nothing to lose.

that said there are swing areas where this will hurt Republican seats if they lose reelection, which hopefully prevents them from being able to pull stunts like this in the future. the Republican party as a whole will just lose a lot of their power to do much.

also not sure how accurate that rating is since i would had sworn the Wall Street Journal poll done like yesterday had them at 24%~ still cause for mass panic within their party tho.


This has nothing to do with party lines, this is everyone, Democrat, Republican..etc. People always rate the overall government lower than they rate their own Representatives and Senators. People LOVE Joe Smith, their local Congressman, LOVE Mike Chavez and Ed Doe their Senators, but hate Congress as a whole.


Its backwards ass logic but its true, and that is why things don't change. People put the blame on other's politicians, never their own.


Obama has broken a myriad of promises that he ran on, this administration is even more repressive and authoritarian than George Bush's was, amazingly enough, yet how many people do you hear truly renouncing it?



People will say one thing, but they'll defend whoever they vote for as if you insulted their own mother.

[MavsSuperFan]

friends and family

also wall street banks and insurance corporation executives still love congress

[Godzuki]

This has nothing to do with party lines, this is everyone, Democrat, Republican..etc. People always rate the overall government lower than they rate their own Representatives and Senators. People LOVE Joe Smith, their local Congressman, LOVE Mike Chavez and Ed Doe their Senators, but hate Congress as a whole.


Its backwards ass logic but its true, and that is why things don't change. People put the blame on other's politicians, never their own.


Obama has broken a myriad of promises that he ran on, this administration is even more repressive and authoritarian than George Bush's was, amazingly enough, yet how many people do you hear truly renouncing it?



People will say one thing, but they'll defend whoever they vote for as if you insulted their own mother.


their own are pushing what they want their elected officials to do tho. I don't really understand your logic there since they should have a higher level of confidence in their local elected officials who vote and push for their sides on issues. and having a poor approval rating of the government as a whole generally stems from the dysfunction and lack of ability to agree in Washington. I mean if i'm misunderstanding what you're saying then my bad, but to me that seems straight forward, not backwards.

I think the problem with a lot of people in America is they don't follow things on a micro level, and tend to sum up everything on a macro level of simplicity. They expect black and white results when things are far more complicated and there are more factions completely dug in to sides on issues, where trying to come to an agreement can be difficult to borderline impossible. its like the Obama criticism he's not a good leader because he can't make Republicans agree and end the shutdown, and thats as simplistically as some people view the whole thing. In reality the Tea Party are holding the country hostage through the debt ceiling not being raised and being unable to fund the government, and using that to negotiate the abolishment of Obamacare/ACA. Which was the biggest issue in the last election and platform issue Obama was reelected on that passed the Senate and Supreme Court already voted in, so obviously Dem's would never agree to that. I mean they essentially held the country hostage for almost 2 weeks so far based on that impossible demand, and then very recently after REpublican approval ratings nose-dived changed their demands to focus on cuts towards the deficit. Some still are holding out for the end of Obamacare, all or nothing in the Republican party, mostly tea party REpublicans.

I just think these are the people who always say both parties are just as bad when they aren't following it on a micro level, and want to sum it all up very simplistically. Its easy to blame everyone, much harder to follow and understand the sides and why there is so much disagreement. Americans in general just constantly just want results without knowing the difficulties in trying to get those results they expect. Its sort of like the war on terror with the expectation of there never being another terrorist attack on our soil and if there is they got nuts blaming the government and why/how they allowed it. but take no responsibility for not willing to give law enforcement anymore leeway to prevent those attacks before they happen citing invasion of privacy. I just think its impractical to want to have it both ways, but again its easy for some Americans to just constantly criticize when the shit hits the fan.

I think you're going pretty far saying Obama's Administration is worse than Bush's, let alone like he's lied so much to us. Lets not forget many of his critics wanted no bailouts and with hindsight now being 20/20, no matter how wrong in principle they were, they were the right thing to do. We made a profit in some cases, and saved our financial, insurance, and auto industries as well as a prevented guaranteed financial collapse of our economic system if everything was allowed to fail. Lets also not forget his critics said his economic policies would just sink us further into a recession, and yet unemployment has steadily dropped, the real estate market is/was making a real comeback, and the stock market has gone up almost every day of this year until this debt ceiling possible default. Yes he didn't completely deliver on bringing the troops home immediately but we are out of Iraq and by 2014 expected to be out of Afghanistan. What other promises did he break?

I don't think either party is perfect, nor do i think the people who criticze both parties are perfect either and who/what they support. I just think people love to bitch without knowing the specifics of why things don't get done, where the blame lies, and always try to pin it on both parties equally. I mean every Independent has beliefs that are far from being realistic as well so its not like everyone doesn't stink some. IMO most of the blame right now is based on the Tea Party, and i think logic would support that, not some generalized overall cynical view of the whole system.

[OldSkoolball#52]

Not saying there are government programs that should be cut but some Republicans, and especially Tea Party REpublicans take it to a retard extreme. lol @ tea party wanting no government agencies....no FEMA, no HWA, No board of education, etc. etc. :facepalm the other thing that really bothers me is they always try and justify our massive military budget like that shouldn't be cut at all....and then lecture Dem's about spending.


I consider myself a moderate conservative and I fully understand the need for agencies like the FDA, FEMA and so forth. At the same time, there are some government agencies that could and should be massively scaled back or scrapped, but will not be because their workers vote for Democratic politicians in order to have these bloated agencies with bloated payrolls supported.

Your focus on tea party extremism is a waste of time. The Tea Party is never going to get its ideal government, and everyone knows that. Why don't you focus on improving things with a realistic possibility of being changed, and do so from an objective, non-partisan standpoint?

Your continuous attack of the right wing fringe is akin to a Presidential candidate spending all his ad time going after Ross Perot or some third party candidate. You're wasting your time. You seem to be more concerned with "besting" the Tea Partiers and making them look foolish instead of focusing on reasonable solutions to what matters right now.

You don't realize that you are a left wing version of the tea party extremists. You're petty, misguided, obsessively bickering about the people you don't like instead of the policies that are necessary. GTFO.

[DukeDelonte13]

most people can't even name their own local representatives

[OldSkoolball#52]

most people can't even name their own local representatives


THAT is the corporations fault, man. Wall Street secretly pays the government to put things in the water to make people lazy and apathetic. It's all part of an elaborate scheme started by George Bush.

That's the reason people don't take responsibility for themselves. Sure, if every person took a vested interest, we could use the power of our vote to get the government straightened out ASAP.

But that's like, stupid man. Nobody's gonna tell me what to pay attention to. If they do I'm callin the ACLU and they will sue those stupid redneck republicans and stupid george bush.


ITS NOT MY FAULT. I just can't catch a break. Attitude? What attitude? Don't come around tellin me to take responsibility. I'M NOT A 1%ER MOTHER****ER. I DON'T HAVE A MANSION, DONT EXPECT ME TO BE ALL VOTIN' N SHIT. GIMME SOME SOCIAL SERVICES BITCH.

[Godzuki]

I consider myself a moderate conservative and I fully understand the need for agencies like the FDA, FEMA and so forth. At the same time, there are some government agencies that could and should be massively scaled back or scrapped, but will not be because their workers vote for Democratic politicians in order to have these bloated agencies with bloated payrolls supported.

Your focus on tea party extremism is a waste of time. The Tea Party is never going to get its ideal government, and everyone knows that. Why don't you focus on improving things with a realistic possibility of being changed, and do so from an objective, non-partisan standpoint?

Your continuous attack of the right wing fringe is akin to a Presidential candidate spending all his ad time going after Ross Perot or some third party candidate. You're wasting your time. You seem to be more concerned with "besting" the Tea Partiers and making them look foolish instead of focusing on reasonable solutions to what matters right now.

You don't realize that you are a left wing version of the tea party extremists. You're petty, misguided, obsessively bickering about the people you don't like instead of the policies that are necessary. GTFO.


you're pretty clueless if you think the Tea Party is harmless, or shouldn't have any critical focus. I don't know if you're following whats currently happening but the Tea Party is the basis of the whole shutdown. For you to say they're harmless is laughably clueless in terms of current events. If anything the moderate Republicans hold so little sway in the Republican party these days that i'm not sure what Republican party you're pretending to speak about, since their extreme fringe have been running that party.

I'm very open to a logical argument, its just that you don't seem to present one. You're purposely obscure and generalized, never specific probably because you don't want to be called out for being wrong on something. Anyways i am definitely not far left, and have already stated i agree with some of government should be cut. I've also supported everything i've stated much clearer than you have, and am willing to engage you in any logical debate with more clarity in our beliefs, although i doubt you are as willing.

You just can't argue me calling you out or some REpublicans on things we now know you were very wrong about i guess. With hindsight being 20/20 now on some of the things some of you wanted and pushed, there is just no way you can pretend to deny much of what is stated....and for christs sakes at least present a argument where i'm wrong instead of your safe, lack of knowledge, generalized BS.

oh and this idea of a 3rd party being some solution in an arena where politics is the name of the game to corporations, special interests, and lastly the people is as big a pipe dream and unrealistic effort than picking the lesser of 2 evils out of the right and left. like i said in my wall of txt, your shit doesn't stink either....let me guess Ron Paul independent, right? lol you guys always talk like he wasn't some ridiculous nut on some policies he pushed, only pretending its the other parties.