From The Ramparts

Voters Extremely Dissatisfied With COngress

Voters Extremely Dissatisfied With Congress

"With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The disdain for Congress is as intense as it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end 40 years of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well. It underlines the challenge the Republican Party faces in trying to hold on to power in the face of a surge in anti-incumbent sentiment. By broad margins, respondents said that members of Congress were too tied to special interests and that they did not understand the needs and problems of average Americans. Two-thirds said Congress had accomplished less than it typically did in a two-year session; most said they could not name a single major piece of legislation that cleared this Congress. Just 25 percent said they approved of the way Congress was doing its job" New York Times. By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER 09-21-06

An article in today's New York Times indicates only twenty-fiver per cent of those polled approve of the way Congress is doing its' job. Put another way seventy-five per cent of the people polled think Congress is doing a poor job. Seventy-five per cent, if this were a sane society our Congress critters would be packing their bags in anticipation of being given pink slips and turned out in November. Alas this is not a sane society. In this culture where cheating and corruption are so strongly intrenched, both parties are probably plotting how to steal yet another election. According to the CBS News/Times poll, voter dissatisfaction is very high with respondents offering a myriad of reasons why they feel elected officials are out of touch with the issues that impact the citizenry. According to the Times reporters, respondents stated this Congress was too tied to special interests and had not done enough work to justify their support. "In one striking finding, 77 percent of respondents — including 65 percent of Republicans — said most members of Congress had not done a good enough job to deserve re-election and that it was time to give a new people a chance. That is the highest number of voters saying it is ‘time for new people' since the fall of 1994... Evidence of the antipathy toward Congress in particular — and Washington in general — was abundant: 71 percent said they did not trust the government to do what is right. ‘If they had new blood, then the people that influence them — the lobbyists — would maybe not be so influential,' said Norma Scranton, a Republican from Thedford, Neb., in a follow-up interview after the poll. "They don't have our interest at heart because they're influenced by these lobbyists. If they were new, maybe they would try to please their constituents a little better.' Lois Thurber, a Republican from Axtell, Neb., said in a follow-up interview: "There's so much bickering, so much disagreement — they just can't get together on certain issues. They're kind of more worried about themselves than they are about the country." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/us/politics/21poll.html
The people have seen over the past few years or at least they perceive Congress will not do the right thing by the people of this country. The sour mood toward Congress is certainly justified. Last Spring our Congress Critters gave themselves a thirteen hundred dollar raise at a time when most AmeriKKKans' pay checks are frozen while inflation is steadily rising. Rarely if ever does Congress even talk like they comprehend or care about what the average AmeriKKKan is going through. Confidence in Congress and government in general is so low because people read about the scandals, they hear the lies and they feel Congress is not listening to the very people who elected them to office. The Times article reiterates what many people have been saying for months now, Congress is out of touch with the people and people do not trust them to do the right thing. "Voters said Democrats were more likely to tell the truth than Republicans when discussing the war in Iraq and about the actual threat of terrorism. And 59 percent of respondents said Mr. Bush was hiding something when he talked about how things were going in Iraq; an additional 25 percent said he was mostly lying when talking about the war. Not that Democrats should draw any solace from that: 71 percent of respondents said Democrats in Congress were hiding something when they talked about how well things were going in Iraq, while 13 percent said they were mostly lying." ibid
Congress has lost what little credibility it had. Many AmeriKKKans are still angry about the way recent elections have turned out with voter irregularities and fraud deciding many local elections including two presidential contests in 2000 and 2004. The question is, will voter dissatisfaction translate into changes in the upcoming election? Perhaps not. Gerrymandering has given incumbents a huge edge in retaining districts if not the incumbent, the party currently in control. It was designed that way. The system is rigged and inherently flawed. Even with voter dissatisfaction rampant and Bu$h and the Congress held in low esteem, things may not change even though the citizens desire genuine change! Keep in mind this system is not designed for abrupt change. Not only isn't the system designed for real change, the current players have no intention of changing the game! The people in power will do anything to make sure the remain there. If this were a sane society the Congress critters would be packing their bags in anticipation of being given pink slips by the people. But AmeriKKKa is neither a sane nor a moral culture. Somewhere in AmeriKKKa, as we speak, there are people plotting to steal yet another election this November! We've seen an alarming trend of vote rigging and election fraud recently. Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 are classic examples. Given the criminality and corruption rampant in Washington these days there is no reason to think things will get better especially as more and more states go with electronic voting which as we saw in 2004 doesn't not leave a paper trail and is so easily to rig and current crop of office holder feel more threatened with losing their place at the public trough.
Will disgruntled voters go to the polls and turn the current crop of Congress critters out? That remains to be seen. If there is a good voter turn out there still may be problems with electronic voting as we saw in Ohio in 2004. If more and more people feel elections are a sham, it may permanently turn them off from the process. Or perhaps it may create a more militant environment where activists feel the system is so thoroughly corrupt and rigged against the common folks, they'll demand real changes. Either way the ruling elites win. If the masses get too restless, the fascists will squash militant dissent under the guise and pretext of "national security" using existing provisions in the USA PATRIOT act thereby ushering in an even more repressive intrusive police state; which is their real goal anyway. If people become passive and eschew the political process the ruling elites win because they don't even have to go through the shame of elections. It will be business as usual since the lobbyists and special interest groups will dictate the policy agenda anyway. These are interesting times to be alive in the belly of the beast.

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 7:58 AM