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Failure of the American Voter

I’ve been thinking about the massive disconnect between the abysmal ratings that Congress enjoys (8% approval I recently read) and the virtual invincibility of Congressional incumbents (incumbents consistently win 90% of the elections where they seek reelection).

I realized that the apparent disconnect was not as stark as it first appeared (11 out of 12 disapproving of Congress while 9 of 10 chose to reelect their Congressional representatives). The reality is that eleven out of twelve people people disapprove of Congress but only five out of twelve vote for someone new when given their current member of Congress as an option.

The fact that six out of twelve voters disapprove of Congress and yet they consistently vote the same people back to represent them over and over again is evidence of a colossal failure on the part of the voters of this nation. They fail to recognize that Congress is working exactly as designed given the input they provide at the polls in November of each even year.

By David

David is the father of 8 children. When he's not busy with that full time occupation he works as a technology professional. He enjoys discussing big issues with informed people, cooking, gardening, vexillology (flag design), and tinkering.

6 replies on “Failure of the American Voter”

You are exactly right in your assessment of the voting public. Voting for the person or party that you disapprove of has been compared to the “battered partner syndrome”.
They just keep saying “It could be worse, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. And that is a shame.

I think one of the core problems is getting the incumbent party to vote other candidates in during the primaries.

I agree. The power of incumbency within each party is a major hinderence to good government. Unfortunately one of the side effects that supports incumbency is that the non-incumbent party is prone in some races to discourage good candidates, or to select worse candidates who are perceived as having a better shot, or even to just select lame candidates for a show of opposition without putting in any real effort to find and support a strong candidate who will seriously challenge the incumbent. The result of too much incumbency is the disease we call Potomac Fever.

Far too many voters vote with their feelings rather than their head. “I like that guy” is the reason that many people vote for a party or for a candidate that does not stand for the best interest of the voter.

True. I believe that is the predictable outcome of any voter who does not put forth the effort to truly be informed about the issues, the candidates, and the purpose of government.

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