Hmm, 57% say they'd replace entire Congress -- yet voters keep reelecting incumbents

More than half of American adults would vote to replace the entire membership of Congress, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports.

The results speak to long-escalating frustrations with congressional inaction and poor execution, as well as to economic fears and uncertainties.

But it still doesn't explain why, election after election, the American public reelects incumbents almost without fail. Maybe it's the classic case of "we hate Congress -- but we love our congressman."

The Rasmussen telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters nationwide found that 25% would stick with the current batch of legislators. On the flip side, 57% would eject the whole lot of them. The findings haven't changed much from the last poll, Rasmussen Reports says.

That's all well and good, but we have to ask: What would it take for you to actually vote out your congressman?  With reelection in many cases hovering above 90%, we have to assume Americans really do like their representatives -- but hate everybody else's.

Alaska gave one of its senators, Ted Stevens, repeated do-overs after a string of controversies and a brief stint as the butt of every joke online (after discovering that the Internet is not a "series of tubes").  Even when he was unseated last year by Democrat Mark Begich, Stevens lost by barely 1 percentage point.

So, ladies and gentlemen of Congress, there you have it.  Just don't use your power to dishonestly inflate your bank account, and your job should be safe.  But, apparently, America will still say it hates you.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Protesters outside the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless' Stout Street Clinic in Denver last month during a visit by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Bunker Sorbet]

I think this underlines that the ultimate responsibility for bad politicians lies with the voters, not the politicians.
I live in New York, there are numerous incumbents who ran unopposed in the last election but would have been unseated if "blank" was a person.
The ugly truth is that voters are lazy, don't do research, and are easily manipulated by million dollar campaigns.

[Greg Reyna]

Gee Mark, d'ya think it might just have to do with wishful thinking? As if Congress actually might one day get around to voting the will of the people? Hmmm. I wonder if anyone notices that we've got The Best Congress Money Can Buy, and that as far as Congress is concerned the paymasters are_anyone_but_the citizens.

As long as Election = Big $$ the fix is in. How can a prospective Congressional representative stand a chance for election without taking money from the very Corporations that are causing the problems in the first place? Do ya think this might be an opportunity to talk about taking private money out of elections? Public funding of elections is an obvious choice. 1. Candidate must raise a minimal amount of money ($25 maximum from each supporter?) from a relatively large number of individuals to indicate support in the community. 2. All valid candidates receive funds from federal, no-strings-attached source. The funds are distributed incrementally during the course of the campaign. 3. All major broadcasters are required to give free blocks of time to candidates for TV, radio, and Internet ads.--These are after all the public airwaves that the broadcasters use to make their fortunes. It took me all of a couple of minutes to write this, but there are a number of extremely competent organizations out there that have spent years working out possible ways to publicly fund elections. Of the newspapers that are left in this country, how many do you think will devote any significant space this year to stress the need for publicly funded elections? Will you?

[Julian]

Think about it, CA has been run by Demos for ages and look at the condition of the state.

[swf]

Politicians, state and federal, have lost sight of their constinuents' needs and are obsessed with building warchests in order to get reelected. All they do is waste money and give empty partisan speeches. And when things go painfully wrong, the public aims its bile at the current administration as if they're responsible for the idiots in congress. Maybe it's time for really big change.