NYC Letter: BLAME THEM! Redux

Countdown 29 days to go

59% WOULD VOTE TO REPLACE
ENTIRE CONGRESS

CITIZEN OVERSIGHT
Better Luck With Darts And The Phone Book

October 2, 2008 (Rasmussen) - Key findings of the poll:

• If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. Only 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office.

• Just 23% have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation’s economic problems.

• Only 24% believe most Members of Congress understand legislation before they vote on it.

• Only 49% believe the current Congress is better than individuals selected at random from the phone book; 33% believe a randomly selected group of Americans could do a better job, and 19% are not sure

Legislating as jury duty, sounds good to us. It would be an improvement over this or this or this.

The report notes:

When the Constitution was written, the nation’s founders expected that there would be a 50% turnover in the House of Representatives every election cycle. That was the experience they witnessed in state legislatures at the time (and most of the state legislatures offered just one-year terms). For well over 100 years after the Constitution was adopted, the turnover averaged in the 50% range as expected.

In the twentieth century, turnover began to decline. As power and prestige flowed to Washington during the New Deal era, fewer and fewer Members of Congress wanted to leave. In 1968, Congressional turnover fell to single digits for the first time ever and it has remained very low ever since.

Democrats currently enjoy a nine-point advantage in the Generic Congressional Ballot.