More People Think Ghosts are Real than Think Congress Is Doing a Good Job

A poll over the summer of 2010 showed that 18% of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim and 34% think he is a Christian. Another poll shows that 40% of people from India and China believe that aliens walk among us disguised as humans, and that 22% of all the men in the world believe aliens are here on Earth. 21% of voters in a recent poll said that the explosion and massive oil spill that resulted from the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig made them more likely to support offshore drilling. Polls report that 27 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, and 25 percent in astrology. What is notable about all of these polls is that more people believe in aliens, ghosts, astrology, and other notions than believe Congress is doing a good job.

According to recent polling data by Gallup, only 13% of Americans approve of the way that the Democratic-controlled Congress is performing its job. More people believe in ghosts than like the job that Democrats are doing in Congress. More people believe that aliens walk among us disguised as humans than think that Democrats who run Congress are doing a good job working and passing legislation. More people think that as astrology works better than a Democratic-run Congress works.

These numbers are shocking- I'm sure with time and energy I could convince 14% of Americans anything, and yet Congress can't convince that many people that they are doing a good job running our legislative branch, passing legislation, exercising oversight over the executive branch, confirming justices or treaties, or running worthwhile investigations into matters of public interest.

The approval rate for Congress also sets a new record for the lowest approval rate ever in the history of Gallup polling- this Democratically-run Congress, with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, has a lower approval rate than any Republican Congress at any time ever in the history of this poll. The prior low approval rating for Democratic-run Congress in 14% in July 2008 when the United States was dealing with record-high gas prices and the economy was in recession- but these Democrats who were elected in 2008 managed to mess things up even more and demonstrate their unsuitability for their jobs even more than those other Democrats.

My prediction though is that the approval rate of Congress will again rise, because starting next month, Congress changes and at least part of it will be controlled and run by the Republican Party. Perhaps the approval ratings could again rival the approval that Americans had for the Republican Congresses from 1994-2006, when approval ratings for our legislative branch was usually higher than 40%. Although I don't always based everything on what is popular and what the American public thinks, you have to respect how thoroughly the Democrats have done a poor job and convinced everyone as to their unsuitability to retain office.

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