"... the strangest factoid of all: Unless Americans decided to break from tradition and throw the bums out, the politicians who are making so much blood boil today will sail to re-election in 2014."

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Politicians are bad for your health
By Kirsten Powers, July 17, 2014

We knew politicians were unpopular. But did you know they might be bad for your health?

Last week, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a survey on the causes of stress, a significant contributor to disease. Turns out, one of the top daily stressors in Americans’ lives is “hearing about what the government or politicians are doing.” That’s second only to “juggling schedules of family members.” Being informed of what our leaders are up to is more likely to cause rising blood pressure than car problems or commuting, according to the survey.

For some time, Congress has evoked a special ire among Americans, with approval ratings that barely break double digits. (The Economist/YouGov tracking poll has it at 11 percent.) Last year, Public Policy Polling found that colonoscopies and root canals rated higher than congressmen.

Even the Supreme Court, once one of the most respected institutions in the United States, has become an increasingly divisive factor in American life. A Gallup Poll released this week reported one of the lowest approval ratings for the high court (47 percent) in the 14 years they have measured it.

What is it that Americans find so toxic about their government?

Perhaps it’s failure. Pew declared at the end of 2013 that we had just witnessed the least productive Congress in the past two decades. The research center said, “The 113th has passed fewer substantive measures than any Congress in two decades.”

Or maybe it’s the incessant bickering between Republicans and Democrats. The headlines say it all: “Partisan bickering torpedoes (White House) meeting of governors,” or “Lesson not learned: Partisan bickering rages on.” Their childish antics have real-world consequences, such as the GOP’s intransigence causing a government shutdown. It really shouldn’t be a surprise that an April Harvard poll found that millennials have less trust in government than ever.

Then again, it could be the lying. In January, an ABC News poll reported that half of the country doesn’t trust President Barack Obama. A June CNN poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe that the Obama administration has been “generally dishonest” about the attack in Benghazi, Libya. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s whopper last week characterizing the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision as “five guys … determining what contraceptions are legal” was rated as 100 percent “false” by Politifact. And who can forget, “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it.”

Before Republicans start high-fiving, the country thinks even less of them. A January Pew poll found that, by a margin of 41 percent-31 percent Americans say Democrats govern more honestly than Republicans.

While voters’ contempt for national politicians has risen, the rate of re-election has barely fluctuated. Even in 2012, with bottom-of-the-barrel approval ratings, 90 percent of U.S. senators and House members were re-elected. Which brings us to the strangest factoid of all: Unless Americans decided to break from tradition and throw the bums out, the politicians who are making so much blood boil today will sail to re-election in 2014.
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