End-Of-The-Year Views On Congress

We are nearing the end of the year -- a year in which Congress was very unpopular. And as this Public Policy Polling survey shows, that view has not changed. The survey was done between December 12th and 16th of 1,316 registered voters nationwide, and has a margin of error of only 2.7 points.

The people continue to despise Congress as a whole, and they aren't too crazy about either party. But they do give a slight edge to congressional Democrats. Congressional Democrats have a 10 point higher approval rating than congressional Republicans, and a 9 point lower disapproval rating.

And if the election was held today, the Democrats would have a slight advantage. They lead the Republicans on a generic party preference by 3 points. That's not a lot, but the advantage holds up when the poll's responds were questioned about their own congressperson. This should worry the Republicans, who currently hold an advantage in the House. A further worry is that while most Democrats are happy with their congressperson, most Republicans aren't (and could replace their congressperson with a teabagger -- giving Democrats an even easier time in flipping the House).

The survey also polled about raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. It turns out that, like other polls have shown, a significant majority of Americans would favor that (with those supporting the raise being about 18 points higher than those opposing it).

This works in favor of the Democrats, since congressional Republicans oppose raising the minimum wage (and many would even completely abolish it). If the Democrats are smart, they will campaign on this issue (along with protecting Social Security and Medicare) -- because these are issues where the Republicans are out-of-step with the majority of voters.

The one issue where the Republicans have the edge is dissatisfaction with Obamacare. But that may not be a real issue when the general election rolls around next year -- because as millions sign up for insurance, and realize they are getting better and cheaper insurance than before, this dissatisfaction will dissipate.

I feel pretty good about the Democratic chances in the 2014 election -- as long as they can turn out the vote. At least, they are on the right side of most issues.