Friday, June 14, 2013

Lede, buried.

The story should have been titled "Congress miraculously retains trust of one American in ten!" I'm a little skeptical of such high numbers. You have to wonder how anyone could be dumb enough to trust Congress and still be smart enough to answer a phone.

Congress's approval levels, not good at the best of times, are examining whale poop from the underside in the latest Gallup poll, lagging behind even the president, who still has the confidence of three of those people every day and a fourth on some days.
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17 comments:

DanH said...

Isn't the American literacy rate about 90%? That would probably explain their results...

8:23 AM, June 14, 2013
Anonymous said...

What's even more pathetic is that those 10% and 35% ratings are more likely the result of media indoctrination than any actual thought process.

8:36 AM, June 14, 2013
staghounds said...

And yet those same people, as voters, reselect the same crew every other year.

8:53 AM, June 14, 2013
Anonymous said...

Makes sense.

Dot gov is so big now that one in ten people are elected or appointed officials.

Gerry

8:59 AM, June 14, 2013
staghounds said...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/162347/americans-give-guns-immigration-reform-low-priority.aspx

I like this poll, where the questions are asked as D talking points. To me, "reducing gun violence" is issuing surplus model 10s with bullets and training to every non felon who wants one; "immigration reform" means you are a citizen, legally here and chipped, or gone; and "reducing poverty and inequality" means turning off public assistance to all but the disabled and giving public housing to its tenants in fee simple.

9:01 AM, June 14, 2013
Tam said...

staghounds,

Every now and again, tufts of wookie suit peek out from under your office attire. ;)

9:10 AM, June 14, 2013
mikee said...

The question on the poll may have been; "Do you trust Congress?"

I do trust Congress. But what I trust them to do is another thing entirely.

Maybe 1 out of 10 just trust Congress to continue doing the same crap they've done all our lives, and admitted it.

10:31 AM, June 14, 2013
Mike_C said...

You have to wonder how anyone could be dumb enough to trust Congress and still smart enough to answer a phone.

Voice on phone: So, people who think it's okay to use drone strikes against Americans are monitoring your communications. Now, I will ask you over the phone, "Do you trust these people?"

Respondent: Why, sure! Absolutely. Great folks they are, just great!

10:47 AM, June 14, 2013
perlhaqr said...

Staghounds: Why just non-felons?

Mike_C: Heh. :)

10:49 AM, June 14, 2013
staghounds said...

The felons already have theirs...

I have been thinking about this whole trust concept. Interesting that a professional, self-selecting institution, the most often responsible for the destruction of republics, and the one most feared by the Founders of ours is the most trusted.

11:50 AM, June 14, 2013
Anonymous said...

"You have to wonder how anyone could be dumb enough to trust Congress and still *be* smart enough to answer a phone."

My OCD flared up. Sorry.

12:50 PM, June 14, 2013
Tam said...

Anon 12:50,

Thanks! I blame my own careless copy editing. :o

1:04 PM, June 14, 2013
Sigivald said...

I absolutely trust Congress.

To be power-grubbing fools, incompetent at everything except politics, and barely competent at that.

My trust in them is thus never let down.

(My Senator is Jeff Merkley, God help me.)

2:16 PM, June 14, 2013
Aesop said...

The hidden flaw is that anyone with the time and inclination to talk to surveyors is probably de facto too stupid to listen to about anything.

It's by and large the same way they selct jury pools in high-profile cases.

The simple answer is that before any incumbent were allowed to run again, the pre-primary should be a straight-out yes/no between them and not-them.

If you can't get 50%+1 vote outright, you have no business being returned, and any successor, from any party, deserves the shot at it more.

Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment, and letting each state legislature select your state's two senators, as originally provided, would have the effect of removing 50% of congress from the statewide retard beauty contest, and likely have curbed the federal beast at something approaching its pre-1900 size long since.

2:40 PM, June 14, 2013
Windy Wilson said...

Lots of 8-year-olds can answer the phone, and they trust people that adults know it is a mistake to trust.
I don't think the two are as mutually exclusive as you say.
And voting is almost completely determined by time above ground (except in Chicago), rather than by any level of mental abililty, a la Heinlein's factor-an-equation-and-get-to-vote-with-no-lower-age-limit theory.

2:52 PM, June 14, 2013
Windy Wilson said...

Aesop, I recall speaking to a telephone surveyor 35 years ago about what were my major community concerns, and she was audibly disappointed when I said "the economy", as it turned out the whole of her quesionnaire was geared towards guns and how severe restrictions were needed for safety.

2:55 PM, June 14, 2013
Ian Argent said...

Just came up on MyFacePlace - and I noted there that while Congress as a collective noun has abysmal approval ratings, the individual congresscritters have excellent ones with their constituents. IE, they're doing their jobs, representing the desires of those constituents.

WV: uyestr Moab. No, I did not answer yes to a MOAB, thanks you very much.

4:50 PM, June 14, 2013

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