It’s been said that a person is a genius, while people are idiots. What is it about group dynamics that cause individual intelligent beings to act like lemmings when joined together? Why is it that we love our congressmen, but give such low approvals to our Congress? There are few things in American society as predictable as incumbent congressmen winning re-election.
Since 1964 re-election rates have not dropped below 85% for a member of the House and more often than not they exceed 90%, per OpenSecrets.org. Yet, the approval ratings for the Congress have never been lower. At the end of 2011, per a CBS/NY Times poll Congress had an approval rating of 9% and per a Gallup poll it’s 13%. According to the Huffington Post this is lower than Porn, Polygamy, the BP Oil Spill and the U.S. Going Communist. Some interesting comparative stats are: 30% of Americans approve of pornography, 23% approve of the banks, and the BP oil spill received 16% (unbelievable!) and lastly, President Richard Nixon’s approval rating during Watergate was 23%.
In summary 85% get re-elected, but they have a disapproval rating of 83%. So, back to the metaphor about lemmings, which by the way is inaccurate (see Snopes.com or Youtube.com), but we’ll use it anyway because we all understand the metaphor. Is it bad behavior for an entire group to jump off a cliff together? Would one lemming have been better off to just stay in bed that day? When President Obama asks Congress this week for the authority to borrow an additional $1.2 trillion, increasing the debt limit to $16.4 trillion, will our congressmen with a 9% approval rating be leading us off a cliff and will we send them back in November with an 85% return rate? Let your voice be heard—don’t stay in bed.
