Republicans dreams have turned into nightmares as the approval ratings for Congress, Speaker Of the House John Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have plummeted since the Republican takeover of Congress.
According to PPP, “Congress (11/78 approval), John Boehner (20/66 approval), and Mitch McConnell (20/56 approval) are all brutally unpopular. It’s a given that Boehner and McConnell are deeply unpopular with Democrats, but they also fare quite poorly with Republicans. The House Speaker has a 35/50 approval within his own party, and it’s 31/43 for the Senator Majority Leader. Both of them are even more unpopular with independents than they are with the overall electorate, with Boehner at 13/73 with them and McConnell at 16/61.”
In other words, Boehner, McConnell and the entire group of Congressional Republicans are universally unpopular. Among Republicans, Boehner and McConnell are disliked because some view them as too moderate, and there is a widely held belief by listeners of conservative talk radio that the Republican congressional leadership compromises with President Obama too much.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
For everyone else who resides on planet Earth, Republicans are unpopular because of their refusal to pass popular legislation while they continue to push an unpopular agenda that is far out of step with the non-Republican segments of the country.
The myth that Obama is unpopular president falls apart when his approval ratings are compared with what Congressional Republicans are averaging. President Obama is more than twice as popular as the Republican leaders of Congress. Obama has the sort of approval numbers that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner can only dream about.
Republicans were hoping that their takeover of Congress would lead to a boost in approval ratings, but the opposite has happened. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are being held accountable for their agenda and the poor performance of the Congress that they are in charge of. McConnell and Boehner are in free fall as the Republican-controlled Congress gets less and less popular by the day.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
