A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds the American people dissatisfied with the direction the country is taking, and dissatisfied with Republicans and Democrats alike:
Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush’s temporary troop buildup in Iraq has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Almost six in 10 Americans said they do not think the additional troops sent to Iraq since the beginning of the year will help restore civil order in that country, and 53 percent — a new high in Post-ABC News polls — said they do not believe the Iraq war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States.
Disapproval of Bush’s performance in office remains high, but the new poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approved of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significantly, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.
Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of Democrats in Congress among independents, liberal Democrats and opponents of the war. While independents were evenly split on the Democrats in Congress (49 percent approved; 48 percent disapproved) in April, that is now down to 37 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove. And among liberal Democrats, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 18 points.
Bush’s overall job approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April.
A healthy distrust in and dissatisfaction with government is, on the whole, a good thing. Hopefully, it will lead the voters to take out their frustrations with the incumbents in both parties who have put us into this mess.
June 4th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I do not think that many third-party candidates will benefit from this, but I wonder if we will still some upheavel in ‘08. Will people vote out a lot of the incumbents and bring us one of the least experienced governments we’ve ever had, or will the overall view of the government not be enough to have people vote differently, thinking that it is someone else’s representative and not their own?
I agree that this is not the best news to hear about our government, but it certainly is a very interesting time politically.