There are few things less popular than Congress. Apparently, according to a recent New York Times poll, polygamy, communism, and the BP oil spill all have better PR than the United States Congress, who recently has slipped into single digits – an all time low, even for a historically unpopular body. It has been argued (by Jason Simpson, among others) that we can't really expect great numbers from our legislature, since a lot of us voted for the other guy, and none of us here in CT voted for the distinguished representative from, I don't know. . . let's say Texas. Even worse, voter turnout has never approached 100% of registered voters, and registration has never approached anywhere near 100% of those eligible. As Woody Allen once said, “Life is run by the people who show up.” On average, since Gallup started keeping track, Congress has done a good job in the eyes of about a third (34%) of the voting demographic, and that jives with what a thinking person might expect given the sheer number of people in this country, and the propensity in our national character for crying bullshit at the first sight of a bull, or even the faintest whiff of shit.

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There are things in this country that are completely wrecked - things that I will jump at the chance to argue with people about: women's equality, the death penalty, health care, and of course, as the Occupy movement has highlighted, income (in)equality. But who cares about my argument? I think to myself. I am just one person flapping my jaws, how can I possibly change anything or make my voice matter?

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Last Monday the Obama administration blocked a new Texas law requiring voters to show a photo ID before they can cast a ballot. Why would this administration or any President’s administration want to encourage voter fraud? The answer is pretty simple. The Justice Department has come to the conclusion that 11% of Texas residents are without a driver license or ID card. That means those people, mostly of Hispanic descent, are holding the rest of Texas and this country hostage. It also means that the opportunity for voter deception and malice has skyrocketed.

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So allow me to set the stage for you. Obama is coming into this thing with pretty low approval ratings during a painfully slow economic recovery. As of March 19th, Rasmussen Reports has his approval rate at 49%. To give you some context, he started his presidency at 65%. Still much better than George W Bush, who was hangin’ out around 35%. Point being, for as much as you hear people gripe, he’s not that hated…it’s just that the people who do hate him really hate him. He’s not white, so a number of people automatically want him dead, and it’s never cool to say nice things about the President regardless of who’s in office.

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