Democrats Turn Negative Toward Congress
February 5th, 2010Approval of Congress Hits New Low, Down There With Lawyers
The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
In a continuation of our series on public opinion in America, we find it quite interesting that in the latest surveys, the public approval rating of Congress has fallen to a new low — down there on the scale with lawyers.
The job approval rating of Congress fell six points in the past month, from 24 percent to 18 percent — the lowest reading in more than a year. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans, 78 percent, now disapprove of the job Congress is doing, according to Gallup.
This decline in congressional approval is largely explained by a sharp drop in approval among rank-and-file Democrats, from 45 percent in January to 30 percent today. The slight changes in approval among Republicans and independents are not statistically significant.
In a related finding, among ideological groups, approval of Congress is down mainly among liberals (from 40 percent in January to 24 percent today). Support from moderates was already fairly low, at 28 percent, and is now 21 percent. There has been no change in approval among conservatives. Congress only gets an approval rating by 14 percent of those identifying themselves as conservatives.
Looking at the partisan trends on congressional approval since the start of last year, it is clear that Democrats’ support for the body was restored shortly after President Barack Obama was sworn in, rising from 18 percent in January 2009 to 43 percent in February. It rose further to 57 percent in March and remained at or above 50 percent for the next several months. However, Democrats’ approval of Congress subsequently withered (with a brief dip to 36 percent last fall), and now stands at its lowest level since Obama took office.
Approval of Congress has consistently been below 20 percent among Republicans and independents for several months.
The Bottom Line
Congress enjoyed a bump in public approval at the start of last year as the Obama administration was getting underway — fueled mostly by enhanced approval among Democrats and independents.
“Nearly all of that heightened support among independents had peeled off by last fall, and now Democrats are breaking away,” according to Gallup, which says President Obama’s State of the Union speech may help explain Democrats’ heightened displeasure with Congress.
With 86 percent of Democrats nationwide approving of the job Obama is doing as president in the latest poll, the president’s words clearly carry a great deal of weight with them: if Obama appears to be frustrated with Congress (albeit Democrat controlled), then many Democrats will follow suit.
Still, it is not clear whether Democrats’ disapproval of Congress is directed more at the Republicans (for obstructing Obama’s agenda) or more at the Democrats (for allowing it to languish). That is something Gallup will explore in future polling.
Meanwhile
It is useful to compare the approval and disapproval numbers for Congress with other sectors of society.
According to Gallup, only five out of 24 business and industry sectors measured are typically rated positively by more than 50 percent of Americans. Those are the computer industry, restaurants, the grocery and retail sector and farming/agricultural.
On the other hand, seven industries have overall net negative ratings, meaning that more Americans rate them negatively than rate them positively, including four with net negative ratings of minus 10 percent or less. That includes the health care field, the oil and gas industry, the legal field and the pharmaceutical industry.
Interestingly, and this probably has as much to do with the bashing attorneys take from Republicans and Fox News pundits and the likes of Rush Limbaugh on talk radio, only 4 percent of the public rate the image of lawyers as “very positive.”
The numbers for the legal field are exactly the same as the latest numbers for Congress, where only 18 percent rate the legal profession as “somewhat positive.” The good news may be that 35 percent are neutral on the question, while 24 percent put lawyers in the “somewhat negative” category, the same number who rate Congress negatively, and 15 percent are “very negative” toward lawyers.
The Solution
The only way Congress will turn this trend around is to start hitting back at the Republicans and finding a way to get the job done, including passing a health care reform bill.
The only way this can ever be turned around for lawyers is if the legal profession starts doing some image advertising to counter the corporate Republican line, and starts supporting the Web Press, where news coverage by more liberal news sites tends to be more sympathetic toward the work of the legal profession and the rights of juries than the corporate chain press and broadcast media ever will be.
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Comments
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Tags: Approval of Congress Hits New Low, Democrats Turn Negative Toward Congress, Down There With Lawyers
February 5th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
For those who have an ear let them hear: The Web Press IS the alternative voice to counter the likes of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and the rest. We are the meme detectors. You want to communicate with opinion leaders who can thus influence the masses? Look no further…
February 6th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Maybe I am unusual among Americans, but the experiences I’ve had with lawyers have not been negative, and all of them were litigators, not corporate attorneys.
Good lawyers keep innocent people out of jail, loosen up the purse strings of stingy insurance companies, and get damages paid to people injured by negligence and other wrongdoing.
“Equitable administration of justice” was one of the main objectives of the country’s founders. Without litigating attorneys willing to represent the underdog and the powerless, that objective would be meaningless.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Agreed, for the most part, but they seem to be comfortable with their sleazy reputations, as long as the money keeps rolling in.
If they don’t start sometime soon to do something about this, they will lose their freedom like academics have who allowed the conservatives to get rid of tenure at universities.
The corporate conservatives are on the march, while the liberals seem content to watch TV and hope it’s all a bad dream. See the news page for all the stories on the Tea Party convention going on now in Nashville.