No one in this country would be shocked by the statement that Congress is unpopular. In fact, that concept has become so common to the average American that it has almost been accepted as the norm. As the year draws to an end, the congressional approval rating currently sits at or around 9 percent. Ninety-one percent of the populace disapproves of the body of the United States government that allegedly represents the will of the people. Logic would dictate that with a statistic like this, as the nation goes into a midterm election in 2014, those members currently serving might be out of a job come next November.
That’s what ideally we would expect and hope for were our nation the representative democracy we believe it to be. The sad truth of the matter is that the 2014 midterm elections will most likely end like the congressional elections did in 2012, with a large number of incumbents re-elected and a large number of citizens upset several months later when they realize that the elections had no effect on the corruption or gridlock in Washington.
During the 2012 election, Congress had around a 15 percent approval rating. Even with such a small percentage of American people approving of Congress’ efforts, 90 percent of incumbents were re-elected to their same office. How can this be?
The sad and simple truth of the matter is the people of the United States have become apathetic regarding Congress and politics because they consider the situation hopeless. The average voters do not concern themselves with policy, voting records or even platform. They’d rather vote for the devil they know as opposed to the devil they don’t. It is easier to vote for the same politician over and over because it requires little thought, very little research, and typically there is a sense of familiarity with that politician.
Likewise that politician knows their constituency. They know the voters’ beliefs and their fears and, as such, exploit them to ensure their position in society remains unchanged. Then, once the incumbents are re-elected, and they return to Washington, they give a voice not to their constituency or to the majority of United States but rather the national parties to which they belong or to the special interests that helped make sure they get elected in the first place. Such conduct, in the opinions of most Americans, is repugnant and inherently undemocratic. It is for this reason many Americans – 75 percent according to Gallup polls – support imposing term limits on Congress.
While imposing term limits would not necessarily fix the problems associated with money in politics, it would help to fight the influence money has on our political system. After all, if a member of Congress knew they would not be able to run again, there would be nothing with which party leaders or special interests could hold over their heads. What’s more, a special interest will be far less likely to dump money into someone’s campaign if they knew from the start the member would serve for a brief period of time.
Kyle Jones is a sophomore majoring in political science and Spanish. His column runs biweekly.
