Poll Finds Most Americans Displeased With Congress

From the New York Times courtesy of AlterNet:

Across the board, the poll found marked disenchantment with Congress, highlighting the opportunity that Democrats see to make the argument for a change in leadership and to make the election a national referendum on the performance of the Republican-controlled Congress and Mr. Bush’s tenure. In one striking finding, 77 percent of respondents — including 65 percent of Republicans — said that most members of Congress had not done a good enough job to deserve re-election and that it was time to give new people a chance. That is the highest number of voters who said it was “time for new people” since the fall of 1994.

But

Overall discontent with Congress or Washington does not necessarily signify how someone will vote when they see the familiar name of their member of Congress on the ballot. Thus, while 61 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job, just 29 percent said they disapproved of the way their own “representative is handling his or her job.”

For all the clear dissatisfaction with the 109th Congress, 39 percent of respondents said their own representative deserved re-election, compared with 48 percent who said it was time for someone new. What is more, it seems highly unlikely Democrats would experience a sweep similar to the one Republicans experienced in 1994. Most political analysts judge only about 40 House seats to be in play at the moment, compared with more than 100 seats at this point 12 years ago, in large part because redistricting has created more safe seats for both parties.

Click here for the rest.

Obviously, I'm hoping for a Democratic sweep come November, if only so we can see all those investigations and subpoenas that the Republicans keep mentioning in an attempt to scare their base into showing up on election day. However, as with my lukewarm support of John Kerry in '04, my hoping is only half-hearted. The Democrats are still the Democrats, almost as beholden to corporate interests as the GOP--remember how they had both houses and the Presidency back in '93 and still couldn't get any healthcare reform passed? If the Dems take over next January, there's a good chance that no one will actually see any difference.

Furthermore, as much as I'm hoping for victory, the last two paragraphs of the excerpt pretty much tell the whole story. The game is waaaay more rigged than it was back in '94, what with all these gerrymandered "safe seats," which the Democrats, as individuals, all support because, even though they're not in the majority, they still get to keep their own position and perks. Really, what we need is to put Article I of the Constitution into a paper shredder because, clearly, the legislative process that we have now no longer works--personally, I think a European parliamentary system would suit our current socio-political situation much better. But given the reverence Americans have for the Constitution, that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Expect more of the same for decades to come.

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