Gallup has been asking the public the same question for 50 years, since April 1974: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?”
Since then, public approval of Congress has usually ranged between 30 and 40 percent. (See graph below. The sharp peak in approval occurred just after the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States, as Americans rallied around the flag.)
In the most recent Gallup poll of February 2024, approval of Congress sank to the lowest it’s been in the entire half-century. Only 12 percent of the public now approves of the way Congress is handling its job.
I’m surprised it’s even that high.
Ever since the bailout of Wall Street in 2008, public trust in all branches of the U.S. government has sunk to new lows. Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen have further reduced trust.
But Republican control of the House starting in 2022 has brought a new level of congressional dysfunction, revealing the extent to which Trump Republicans are eager to trash government. Trump thrives on chaos and has been the House Republicans’ off-stage coach and cheerleader.
Early yesterday morning, President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion spending bill […]
The numbers indicate even MAGAts don’t support Congress
Our system is such that it is fundamentally non-representative. Let me give but one example. The last time the House of Representatives was expanded was over 100 years ago. At that time the average representative was supposed to represent about 300,000 people. That number is now about 800,000. There is no way that one person can adequately represent 800,000 people given the complexity of our society. The Republicans work hard to restrict the right to vote, and the Democrats work hard to restrict ballot access. Almost as if they are two wings of the same party, which in many ways they really are. Until the underlying structure is fixed the problem will continue to get worse.