Buckley's Famous Aphorism Returns

Buckley's Famous Aphorism Returns

William Buckley once said "I would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty." Rasmussen Reports tells us:

If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office.
Today, just 23% have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation’s economic problems and only 24% believe most Members of Congress understand legislation before they vote on it.
Last week, the House of Representatives initially rejected a financial bailout bill proposed by the Bush Administration. Later, after the Senate added a number of items that some call “pork” and others call “sweeteners,” the measure eventually passed. While the bill survived Washington, it did so at a time when just 30% of voters favored it and 45% were opposed.

More important, with respect to those 2000 names:

Only half (49%) believe that the current Congress is better than individuals selected at random from the phone book. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe a randomly selected group of Americans could do a better job and 19% are not sure (see crosstabs).

I would have to say that the 49% may be correct in the sense of "well informed" but not in the sense of morally "better." What a random sample of Americans knows might be deficient, compared to Congress (although perhaps not by the huge margin that the elites would like to believe). But I find it very easy to believe that a random sample of Americans would be less corrupted by the influence of K Street lobbyists than the current pack of jackasses.

I really wish that the popular revulsion at Congressional incompetence and stupidity would cause a massive rejection of the current political class next month. But that just isn't going to happen.