Americans' opinion of Congress has never been lower -- according to Gallup, an overwhelming 83% disapprove of the way our elected representatives conduct the People's business. Just 13% of us approve.When you get right down to it -- and despite pronouncements to the contrary from partisans and ideologues -- we disapprove not because Congress is doing the wrong things, but because it accomplishes essentially nothing.
This week, with time running out on the 111th Congress, Democrats are scrambling to ramrod legislation that won't have a snowball's chance in the 112th. Senate majority leader Harry Reid threatens to keep lawmakers in Washington right up to New Year's, prompting this reaction from tea-bagging Republican Sen. Jim DeMint:
"We shouldn't be jamming [START] up against Christmas; it's sacrilegious and disrespectful. What's going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. [Democrats] did the same thing last year -- they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody's throat. I think Americans are sick of this."Another GOP senator, Arizona's Jon Kyl, agreed:
"It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out, frankly, without disrespecting the [Senate] and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff."From the same side of the aisle but the other side of the Capitol, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas weighed in with this:
"We were talking about not being able to buy Christmas presents because [Rep. Nancy] Pelosi and [Sen. Harry] Reid keep dragging us up here. Isn't it going to be bad if our kids don't get Santa Claus because we're stuck here? I haven't bought a present yet."I've grown numb to such self-righteousness -- acting as if Christ is the only reason for this holiday season, grounded in the unconstitutional presumption that this is a Christian nation -- and even to the use of religion as a political ploy. I don't expect that to change.
What makes my head explode, however, is legislators' detachment from the People's reality, along with their apparent lack of shame in expressing it publicly.
Someone needs to remind these arrogant bastards that they'll find many of their constituents -- Christians, Jews, Muslims and others -- at work on their "holiest of holidays." Cops and firefighters, soldiers and nurses, snow-plow drivers and convenience-store cashiers work on holidays to feed their families and serve the People.
And in these excruciatingly difficult economic times, it's worth remembering that millions of unemployed and under-employed Americans must explain to their families that they won't "get Santa Claus" at all this year. Many will be lucky to have a rooftop, much less a chimney.
The injury of political hubris is compounded by the insult of governmental sloth. Consider that this Congress will have been in session for about 150 days -- far less time than the typical American puts in during a year -- and that the incoming Republican leadership proposes to cut back to 123 days.
Seriously. Our do-nothing Congress -- stocked with career politicians who spend more time blocking votes than casting them, mismanaged by feuding Democrats suddenly motivated to eleventh-hour action, obstructed by sanctimonious Republicans bent on running out the clock -- is responding to a 13% approval rating by vowing to spend even less time serving the People.
If that's not proof-positive that our elected representatives don't get it, I don't know what is. And I don't expect that to change one bit, either, no matter who's in the majority when the 112th Congress convenes in January.
