By Jerry Kremer
People interested in politics tend to pay attention to opinion polls, most of which are accurate.
When it comes to the issue of the public’s respect for the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, all of them as a group are at the bottom of the polling charts.
Democrats have higher polling numbers but overall the public has very low regard for the people we send to Congress.
It’s not hard to understand why the Congress gets such poor rankings.
During the course of the year little or nothing gets done. The two bodies passed a new tax law but regrettably, the final bill created too many losers and too few winners.
The states on the East and West coast took the biggest hit, but when the final results of the tax law are analyzed, there will be plenty of losers in the states that President Trump won.
The major reason why our federal officials have no credibility is because day in and day out, no effort is made to pass bipartisan legislation.
In the Senate, things have gotten so bad that there are no longer debates on any major legislation.
Most bills get to the floor with rules that do not allow amendments and limit debate from either side. We have enough tension back here at home so who needs to watch a bunch of grownups battling every day with little or no progress.
The gridlock in Washington and the daily rancor from the President have made the voting public cynical and disinterested.
The cable news networks are filled with stories about one politician or another engaging in personal attacks on their fellow members.
The current campaign by the Republican House to discredit the FBI and all of the intelligence agencies is a testament to how low politics can get.
Once upon a time, the Republican Party made claim to being the law and order party but that is no longer the case.
No one knows what the outcome of this November’s congressional elections will be, but one group that is pumped up and ready to battle are the women voters.
At last count, over 300 women have signed up to run for federal and state office, with most of them being enrolled Democrats.
Starting with President Trump and as far down as state legislatures, the message coming out of the Republican Party has mostly been anti-woman.
As a married person, I know how an angry woman can express herself, but somehow that message hasn’t filtered up to the Congressional leaders.
Another group that has contributed to the low ratings for Congress members are the minority voters.
At last count 16 states have passed laws aimed at depressing voter turnout.
The Republican hostility to the various immigrant groups has made large clusters of voters in all 50 states mad as hell and fired up to send a message.
Recently in Alabama, even though the state has some of the most restrictive voting laws, a massive turnout of minority voters helped elect Democrat Roy Jones as a U.S. senator in a very red state.
The last factor in low polling for the Congress are America’s young people. Whether they are conservative or liberal, watching the Congress function is a big turnoff.
Part of the image problem of the Washington crowd is caused by the fact that many of the senior members of leadership look old and act old.
Sen. Orin Hatch, age 83, is finally leaving and there are at least a dozen others who give off that tired and aloof persona. I am not against being old, as I fit into that category, but young people want to feel that their elected officials understand their needs and wants.
Someday, the pollsters will announce that the public is starting to respect the Congress, but for now, it seems that magic day is far off into the future.
