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There is a school of political thought that a divided government is the government that governs best. Leaving the White House in one party’s hands and the Congress in the other’s hands, the debate progresses and both sides must inevitably come to the negotiating table to settle the matter.
Like New Coke, or electing a faded reality TV star for president, it sounds good in theory at first, but tends to be quite unexecutable in practice.
Heck, it can even go wrong when one party controls everything.
Look at the Senate, where the Democrats and the Biden administration have essentially been held hostage by House Doctor No, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and his frequent foil, Arizona’s Kirsten Cinema.
Mr. Manchin may or may not be a Democrat anymore, but he wielded the House’s 60-vote rule like a club and used it to derail laws he didn’t like. Since then, Cinema, who announced that she is independent, has often stayed with him.
But with the re-election of Rafael Warnock in Georgia, the House has more or less firmly fallen into the hands of the Democrats.
As a new Monmouth College poll reveals, most Americans don’t think a change of ownership in the House of Representatives would make their lives any better. Nor do we think either party will do much to improve their position economically.
Of the poll’s 805 respondents, only 18% believe a Republican control of the House will change Washington for the better, and 21% believe it will change for the worse. A majority of her, 51%, don’t think Republican rule makes a big difference either way, pollsters reveal.
Public perception of Democrats was better when they took control of the House in 2018. The poll found that 16% expected change to get worse, and 42% expected no change at all.
“Some experts are arguing that Americans want divide and rule in the face of these election results,” Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray said in an email. “I think these frequent leadership changes are a problem of chronic dissatisfaction with Washington.”
About a third (36%) of poll respondents believe the new Congress is likely to enact policies that support the middle class. That’s much lower than the 58% who said the same thing when Democrats took control of both sides of the Capitol at the beginning of Joe Biden’s 2021 presidency.
There was similar optimism when Republicans took control of Congress at the start of former President Donald Trump’s term in 2017.
In both of these polls, eight in 10 partisans in the majority and a majority of independents were optimistic about Congress enacting policies for the middle class.
Five years later, after one chaotic election, riots, and several brutal midterm election cycles, the opinion is 46% among Republicans, 34% among independents, and 33% among Democrats, according to polls. is.
“If you ask Americans directly, expectations that Washington will take action are very low,” Murray continued. “They have seen this show before.”
None of the current congressional leaders look very good in the new polls.
Retired House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approval ratings were upside down, but before the Republicans started to fuss, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy had an anemic 12% approval rating compared to 34% who didn’t approve. And it got even worse.
“Pelosi may have been a lightning rod for Republicans over the last 20 years, but she’s clearly earned the admiration of her fellow Democrats,” said Murray of Monmouth.
McCarthy has also fought off an internal rebellion from his own conference and maintains just a 29-20% approval rating among Republicans.
“McCarthy starts off as a clean slate for most people. It will be interesting to see if he can forge the same kind of party loyalty as Pelosi.”McCarthy is ultimately unpopular. could become [Senate GOP Leader Mitch] But the public disdain for the Senate Republican leader is due in part to his ruthlessness in power. It is not clear if McCarthy is made of the same. ”
After all, there may be hope for the return of New Coke.
Award-winning political journalist John L. Micek is editor-in-chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Email jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow us on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.
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