Congress' Public Image

No body of government truly has a truly perfect image in the U.S., but in particular is the congress. There are quite a few theories as to why Congress has a bad public image. Congress may have a poor public image but if it weren't for it's own members speaking ill of the institution then the image problem could easily be fixed.

I think one of the main reasons why Congress has a poor public image is because its members often times criticize it. Many congressional candidates run on the idea that they are going to get into congress, fix it, and make it work. How is the public supposed to be satisfied with an institution that isn't even accepted by its own members? I don't blame the public for having a bad image of the Congress. Most citizens only pay attention to politics with the minimum effort; what they see on TV or what they read on the front page of the paper. Congressmen don't usually go around praising Congress and even if they did, the media doesn't find that interesting and will ignore it. Therefore, the people only believe what they are presented.

Another element to this issue would be Congress' very public decision making process. As Davidson and Oleszek wrote "if a representative or senator sounds ill-informed or advances an outrageous proposal Ð'...the representatives of the media are likely to stress theÐ'...event rather than the substance of the overall debate." This is very true because when congress discusses issues, it is broadcast on CSPAN and covered by journalists. On the contrary, the inner workings of the executive branch and the judicial branch are kept very private most of the time. Again, all the people are being presented with is biased information so that is all they have of which to form an opinion. This particular example is not Congress' fault however. They have no control over how the media portrays them. Congressmen are human and if they make a mistake while addressing their peers, it should not become an addition to the list of reasons to hate congress.

Davidson and Oleszek also mentioned the fact that there is no single spokesperson for Congress as a whole. I completely agree with this because it allows the people to have one person to address instead of searching around and hearing from many different people. Davidson and Olseszek write, "While the President can communicate quickly to the American people concerning his goals