What’s a phone book, you ask? Before smart phones and high-speed internet access, people had to consult a massive book to look up phone numbers. And according to a recent Rasmussen poll, a plurality of voters think the random people inside it would do a better job than the current Congress.
Forty-three percent of respondents said a group of random people selected from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than their current representatives. Thirty-eight percent of respondents disagreed and 19 percent weren’t sure.
“We have a situation in which the American people don’t think Congress or anybody in Washington is listening to them,” Scott Rasmussen, founder of Rasmussen Reporters, told TPM. The numbers also represent a “deeper cynicism” toward Congress, Rasmussen said.
Yep, Congress is pretty bad. And according to the poll, voters agree that both Democrats and Republicans aren’t helping. In fact, a phone book could probably fit in the gap between Congress’ approval and disapproval ratings in TPM’s Poll Average:
Speaking of, why use the phone book analogy? “That’s been a line that people have brought up over the years,” Rasmussen said. “It’s a fun way to test just how fed up people are.”
See the full poll results here.
