A recent Gallup poll found that Congress’ approval rating reached an all-time low, with just 10% having a favorable opinion of the legislative body. This broke the previous low of 11% approval from two months earlier.
In fact, Congress is so unpopular, you might be surprised by some of the people, events, and things that Gallup polling has found to be more popular than Congress. Here are five of the more interesting ones, from a Washington Post slideshow:
Polygamy
Yep, more people look favorably upon having more than one wife than they do Congress. In August of 2011, polygamy’s approval rating sat at 11%.
BP’s handling of the Gulf oil spill
BP (NYSE:BP) was widely criticized for its (mis)handling of the Gulf oil spill in 2010. A June 2010 poll found the company’s approval rating at 13%, still a few percentage points ahead of Congress now.
George W. Bush, at his lowest popularity
In October 2008, one month before Barack Obama was elected president and right as the Great Recession was rearing its ugly head, then-President Bush hit his lowest popularity percentage: just 23% approved of the job he was doing. Still, that practically laps the current Congress.
Paris Hilton
Back in 2005, when the socialite was branching out into reality TV (The Simple Life) and movies (House of Wax), there was a large backlash against her. Not as large as the backlash against Congress currently, however. Hilton’s approval rating back then was 15%.
Human cloning
Around the time that the world was freaking out about the first cloned sheep, the idea of cloning humans was highly unpopular. Still not as unpopular as Congress is now, though, as a 2002 poll found 17% of Americans supported human cloning research.
For the full list of unpopular items that are nevertheless more popular than Congress, check out this slideshow done by The Washington Post.
— Benjamin Nanamaker, InvestorPlace Money & Politics Editor
The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.
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