What are your thoughts on this Gallup Poll showing the Repub and Dem congress approval rating?

Question

Repub appears to be lower than the Dems. Please correct me if I am wrong.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1600/Congress-Public.aspx#1

Answer 1

First, this poll ends August 2007, before the surge and progress reports from Iraq. Back when Congress appeared to be the hero to end the war. Campaign promises to reduce earmarks & special interest spending. Please you tell me what exactly have the Democratic Congress done to maintain campaign promises? This recent bill is loaded full over pork and shoved thru with no debate a day b4 the Christmas holiday breaks.

Your Gallup poll is out of date. Consider also the amount of times each seat collecting dust has changed it's mind or stuck to politics as usual. And I also ask the group this. Who are your Congress people & Senators? Mine Senator Daniel Inoye & Congressman Neil Abercrombie. Both Democrat yet Hawaii finally has a Republican Governor. What percentage polled here can name their representatives.

I also agree, both numbers are so low. President Bush has a higher approval rating. Your point is? xx K

Answer 2

You're right. And it pointsout an interesting phenomenonin American politics.

In the last year the "neocons" havetaken a lot of comfort in the fact that Congress, now under Democratic control, has very low ovrally ratings. That, however, is typical. The graph you linked to breaks this down by party--and shows anentirely different story: disapproval of Republicans more than ofthe Democratic contingent.

But--in either case, while these polls can give us a sense of how people feel genrally about the Congress, they have almost nothing to do with the electoral outcomes (you can see that easily enough just from your graph, looking at the relative strengths of each party in Congress over thesame time period--theere's very little correlation.

The reason is simple: people don't vote for"Congress"--they vote for individual candidates fortheSenate or the House. So--I'd say this gives a sense of how theAmerican people are viewing the respective parties--and that doesn't bode well at all for the GOP. but it is of limited use in prediction the elections--because it's how individual races go that counts, not these overall ratings, interesting as they are.

I would add onething: one possible reason for the current ratings is that the American people are (correctly) poinntingtho the obstructionist tactics ofthe Republicans as the cause forthe limited accomplishments of the Democratic Congresstod ate.

Answer 3

There is very little background on poll specifics, except that it's a snapshot of the Aug 07 time-frame.

This is when the Shamenesty Bill was in the news. Republicans took much more vocal attacks by their constituents, than did Democrats.

If measuring emotions of the conservative base, this approval rating would have been close to zero. Fortunately for the GOP, the replies aren't weighted...lol

This is the reason the Republicans appear to be rated lower in a Democrat Congress.

The latest polls from what I understand break ALL records for disapproval, for Nancy, and Harry's crew.

Answer 4

Anyone paying attention could see this coming. The polls are low becasue the Dems promised to get all sorts of things done, fully aware they couldn't becasue they did not have a 2/3 majority. Now when their legislation fails, they sit back a blame republicans. The repubs seem to have abandoned their conservative principles long before the mids of 2006, so their constituates were already pissed at them.

So, when you have a combination of empty promises, and lack of principles, you get an American public that is angry and hates anyone (regardless of party) on capital hill.

Answer 5

Absolutely. People are frustrated with Washington in general, Congress' ratings are never very high. But at the same time, even though they are dissipointed by the Democrats majoirty they elected in 2006, how they haven't been doing anything, they still are angry at President Bush, and his unpopularity reflects badly on Republicans nationwide. People are frustrated and disillusioned with both parties, and the Democrats aren't doing themselves any favors lately, but for the time being, they have the advantage in this political environment.

Answer 6

And the Dems are only as low as they are because they wuss out and cave in to the Republicans.

The general populace sees the Repubs as self-interested scum (politicians, that is), and the Dems as spineless wimps.

Neither is likeable.

Answer 7

Looking for the silver lining Chi? I would too if my congress had approval ratings remaining at historic lows, and so consistantly too...looks like it's back down to 20.

What I'd like to know is, given the fact that both houses of congress are controlled by Democrats, what the Republicans have or have not done to be approved or disapproved of?

Regardless, you can put me down as one of those who approve of the Republican efforts to stop the Democratic rush to surrender and grant amnesty to illegals. Keep it up!

Answer 8

After seeing the pork piggy oink oink spending by both sides, I am fed up with both dems and repubs. They are showing that they don't care what we want, only what the special interest lobby groups want.

Take a look at how they spent our money and ask yourself if you approve of those purchases. http://porkbusters.org/hhsearmarks.php

Answer 9

You are right. Republicans are lower. republicans are also more critical of themselves. You may also note in this poll that this Democratically lead Congress has had an all time lowest approval rate. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Answer 10

That's about how it's been running for a while. Democrats are rated higher than republicans with Bush somewhere in the middle.