Rod Grams: “I hope my colleagues made time last week to study a poll printed in the Washington Post. It took a close look at the…”

“I hope my colleagues made time last week to study a poll printed in the Washington Post. It took a close look at the American people and their relationship with the political process, and it was, at the same time, both enlightening and frightening. Mr. President, 40 percent of those responding to the poll did not know the name of the current Vice President; 40 percent of Americans were not aware that Republicans control both Chambers of Congress; 56 percent of the people surveyed could not name even one of their Representatives in the Senate; and 74 percent were not aware that we serve 6-year terms. Fully 67 percent of the people who answered the survey did not know that the U.S. Senate had passed a plan to balance the Federal budget. The newspaper makes the argument that the problem lies in education-- that the more knowledge an individual has about the political process, the more likely they are to care about what we are doing here in Washington. But I think an equally compelling case can be made that after decades of broken political promises, the voters have been conditioned to tune us out. They do not care about us because they believe that, deep down, we really do not care about them, either. We should not be concerned that the people do not know our names or the length of our terms or who controls which Chamber. But we ought to be deeply troubled that so many people seem to have lost faith in us.…”