The Washington Post reported yesterdayย on the overwhelming unpopularity of Congress, using Gallup polling to show the slope of Congressional approval over time. Today, only about 10 percent of Americans place a great deal of confidence our representative body — a drop of 32 percentage points since 1973.
Between 2012 and 2013 alone, Congress decreased three percentage points in public approval. But that wasn’t the most remarkable drop in public opinion among institutions: the “medical system” dropped six points over the course of this year — the largest decline of all institutions polled.
During this same period of time, banks gained five points of approval, churches gained four, public schools gained three, and television news and small businesses gained two. Even “big business” grew in approval, albeit by just one point.
The public’s decline in confidence in our nation’s medical system is telling and important, and may in part relate to the public’s dismay with the Congress and presidency which put new health care reforms into motion.
That said, Congress is at the very bottom of the approval list — and not just unpopular among political and social institutions. In early 2013, Public Policy Polling used a creative method of deducing relative approval of Congress to other unpleasant things.
In this survey, Americans approved of head lice, colonoscopies, Nickelback, root canals, cockroaches, Brussels sprouts, traffic jams, NFL replacement refs, and used car salesmen more than they did of Congress.
“My favorite finding is that more Americans approve of Genghis Khan than of Congress, but of Congress over Lindsay Lohan,” writes Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post. “By the transitive property, Lindsay Lohan is worse than Genghis Khan.”
Congress also prevailed over John Edwards, the Kardashians, North Korea, Ebola, Fidel Castro, meth labs, and communism.
I guess these findings could make for some targeted 2014 election cycle talking points: ‘Vote for me… I might contribute to deadlock, but I’m better than a traffic jam.’
Or, as it seems: ‘Elect me to Congress…. I couldn’t make it worse.’
