Congress has sunk to a new low. According to a CNN poll released last week, eighty-four percent of the population disapproves of the job Congress is doing. With those abysmal numbers floating around, you'd think our Congressional delegation would be worried about their prospects of being re-elected during the next campaign cycle, but that's not necessarily true because they know those numbers don't mean squat. What matters is a politician's approval rating in his or her own district.
Disapproving of the way Congress is handling matters is as old as this Republic, but returning our same representatives to Congress year after year is a tradition of almost equal age. That means that while the majority of the public disapproves of the job other Congressmen are doing, they're happy with the job performance of their own representatives. The only conclusion that can be drawn from those facts is that our Congressmen are not responsible for their abysmal job performance – we are. If we elect representatives who pledge to adhere to strict ideological stances and refuse to engage in negotiations or compromise with representatives of folks with opposing viewpoints, we are, in essence, voting for failure. That's our fault, not Congress.
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