General Question

reed's avatar

Why don't people pay more attention to congressional races?

Asked by reed (858points) May 16th, 2008

Everyone seems to be enamored with the presidential races. Presidents really don’t have that much power. Its the congress that spends the money, influences the economy, votes to go to war, shapes social policy, etc. Really the only significant power a president has is the veto pen (which can be overridden by congress), the power to appoint supreme court justices (which congress has to approve), and the bully pulpit. The left gleefully points to Bush’s low approval rating but congress’ (controlled by Democrats) approval rating has been consistently lower than Bush’s! The economy has gotten worse over the last two years under a congress controlled by Democrats and they are the one’s who cast dispersions. Congress if rife with idiots, from both parties, but the electorate sends them back year after year, why? (I’m a centrist by the way so I’m not trying to make a partisan point here).

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7 Answers

marinelife's avatar

@breedmitch Beat me to it! Although another way to look at it is that since COngress passes the funding bills, they do cast dispersions!

marinelife's avatar

To seriously respond, reed, I don’t agree with all of your assertions. However, to tackle the question itself, I believe some people may not because on an individual basis, Congressional races are local. Even for senators, only state wide.

I also think that many people do pay attention to them. I do. See this item, which many people hope indicates a sea change that will lead to a democratic president: http://www.dccc.org/pages/2008_special_elections

breedmitch's avatar

Yes, Childers’ win was widely reported on all the news channels.

reed's avatar

@Marina – that link speaks to open seats. I agree that congressional races are local but I’ve lived in several states and there is little scrutiny given by the media (well, unless there is some scandal involved) to the candidates. I’d rather not start a partisan storm by listing what are the top idiots in my opinion, but take Harry Reid, the Senate leader for example. He’s shown very little leadership, has positions fairly close to the Republicans, is a Mormon (which Romney was hammered over), and yet he skates by with the media.

marinelife's avatar

@reed I try to avoid politics and religion arguments too. They were open seats and had been held by Republicans some for a very long time.

Don’t want to debate who is tops on the list of idiots. There are so many, there is room for all.

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