Blog - Another Sign That People Are Ready For Change in Washington

WHO wouldn’t laugh or be tickled at least, by the notation that the poll which asked people essentially whether they approved presently of Congress (and which showed nearly two-thirds of them don’t), also showed that about a third of those people were unsure of the political party their U.S. House Representative (and maybe either or both of their U.S. Senators) belonged to.

It’s a little comedic, with a mixture of tragic.

I hate these polls that ask for an opinion of Congress: they’re meaningless, and a waste of time: they essentially measure a general and undefined impression of the Federal Government: it’s no wonder that Congress gets as an “Approval Rating”, a rating on a par with George W. Bush’s: it measures nearly the same thing (especially among people not so discerning, as to not know what political party it is their Congressperson belonged to).

The only way I’d want to hear this kind of poll taken and reported, is this way:

To take just the U.S. House of Representatives as an example, ask the respondent if he or she knows who their U.S. Representative is (and if they don’t, then there’s no point in trying to get any worthwhile opinion from them, about the House: no more than you would seek an opinion of the New York Giants, from someone who doesn’t even know who Eli Manning is): continuing to seek an opinion of the House of Representatives only from those who know who their Representative is, then that’s all there is, there ain’t no more… who cares what they think of other people’s Senators and Representatives: they represent other people, and not the respondent (in this kind of poll):

“Do you know who your Representatives are in the U.S. Congress, and if so, what do you think of them?”

It’s a question like that, where you will then see a divergence of opinion and of approval, from George W. Bush and Congress: because it seems that those who presently trumpet this vague and undefined (and even unknowing) disapproval of Congress, they seem variously to be mostly Republicans and Bush supporters and even members of the Bush administration themselves… because misery loves company, I guess is the reason.

Ask folks only what they think of their own Congressperson (but only if they know who he or she is: and never mind asking about their political affiliation, because just knowing who their Congressperson is, is knowledge enough in a Democracy): that’s the real opinion of Congress, the only worthwhile opinion: and then ask those same people what they think of George W. Bush (but only if they know who he is)…

I bet if the poll were conducted that way, that there would be an extraordinary difference of opinion nationally, between what people thought specifically about their own Congressperson, and what they thought about George W. Bush.

That poll result wouldn’t be trumpeted as much by Republicans and Bush supporters and even members of the Bush administration themselves, as the way they love to trumpet this vague and undefined Congressional disapproval.