2012 Reelection Rate: 90 Percent
14th December 2012
Read it.
Despite rock-bottom congressional approval ratings, voters reelected their incumbents at near-banana-republic levels in 2012.
The difference being, of course, that elections in a ‘banana republic’ are corrupt and manipulated, and American Congressional elections are relatively fair, despite Democrat attempts to the contrary.
The author obviously thinks that this high-re-election rate is a Bad Thing. On the contrary, I suggest that this means the system is working: A Congressman is supposed to represent his district; if the district’s voters (or those that care enough to vote) think that s/he’s doing that effectively, then re-election happens. There is no value in having a ‘competitive district’ except in the newsroom or studio that is desperate for a ‘horse-race’ to report on.
Yes, there are stupid people in Congress. Witness the Congressional Black Caucus, most of whom would have trouble getting admitted to a selective Charter High School. But they reflect their districts, or they wouldn’t get re-elected, and there are obviously a lot of stupid (and foolish) voters out there. There is nothing in democratic political theory that says they don’t have a right to be represented, too.
The reason Congress is in low esteem is that Congressional votes don’t just affect their own district, but the country as a whole; one might characterize it as ‘think locally, vote globally’. People don’t mind their own Congressman, but rather than butt-head in the district next door who is getting more pork for his district than we think they’re entitled to … rr destroying historical American freedoms or bringing back slavery or whatever bugaboo the local Congressman isn’t guilty of.
Saying ‘voters hate Congress but like their own member’ is about as paradoxical as saying ‘people hate foreigners but like their own neighbor’, which illustrates how silly this whole discussion actually is.