Congress, Politics

Democrats in Congress Reach Record Lows in Approval

In the first month of the Trump Administration, Democrats seem to be following the old adage of French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau that “generals always fight the last war.” However, usually, the generals won the last war. In this case, Democrats lost both houses and the White House, but doubled down on hyperbolic rhetoric and false claims. The results are predictable: the Democratic Party hit an all-time low in approval, according to a Quinnipiac poll.

President Trump appears to be hovering around an approval rating of 45 percent, with a disapproval rate of 49 percent.

Democrats in Congress have a 68 percent disapproval rate with another 11 percent not offering opinion,” according to Quinnipiac.

For Republicans in Congress, 40 percent approve and 52 percent disapprove. That is the highest approval rate for Republicans in Congress.

I often note that while members of Congress often cite drops in the approval for the Supreme Court, the Court has always been far more popular than Congress.

The low approval is hardly surprising as figures like Hillary Clinton are still driving narratives, including false claims that are insulting to the intelligence of voters. Even Democratic loyalists are criticizing the messaging:

The problem is that these members rely on the same 30 percent of the Democratic base driving these same narratives. For many members, the sole concern is winning their primaries in blue districts. However, replicating the message will likely repeat the results from the last election.

Those members who sought to push the party away from past narratives were attacked, including Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.) who was targeted for a possible primary challenge. It appeared to work. Moulton returned to the same hyperbolic language over the Nazi menace presented by the GOP.

The fact is that the party in power often loses in the midterm elections. The question is whether voters will embrace the same messaging rejected two years earlier.

 

152 thoughts on “Democrats in Congress Reach Record Lows in Approval”

  1. Ray Epps and Sam Brinton in 2028!!! Only THEY can save America. In your heart, you know I’m right.

  2. It’s early days. I have high hopes for Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. in the MGA ranks. Why? Because they’ve put out a signal that they are more interested in good governance than party overcoat. With talent. If that hope turns out good, their signal runs to both the Democrat brand and the MAGA brand, drawing both to the center right where we like to vote. It’s called harmony.

  3. Ray Epps and Sam Brinton in 2028!!! Only THEY can save America.

    In your heart, you know I’m right.

  4. I’m very happy to have the Dems opposing Trump’s efforts to do things like root out government waste and corruption, and get men out of women’s competitive sports and locker rooms. I say, keep up that opposition for at least four years and the GOP will sail to victory in 2028.

    1. The orange slob is doing no such thing— he sold the world’s richest man the power to take a chainsaw to the federal government and he is indiscriminately firing as many people as possible— regardless of their utility, skill or accomplishments— there’s no plan, no consideration for waste, fraud or abuse. And , they LIE about finding thousands of people over the age of 150 receiving Social Security benefits and condoms going to the Taliban, among other lies. They’re just firing as many people as possible and cutting programs right and left, like cancer research, food and medicine for needy people, FAA employees, VA nurses and counselors, and especially administrative agencies that are investigating Musk and his businesses.

      1. Everything you said above is 100% true. . . . . But only on the planet Bizarro World.
        Back here on Earth, however, everyuthing you said is pure BS., or swine feces, to use a somewhat more accurate metphor.

        1. TDS makes people psychotic, literally. Meaning they lose touch with reality. The above is a prime example.

          Now I don’t really feel sorry for such people because they bring it on themselves through their own unbridled hatreds. But what gives me hope is that their entire political house is infected by it which in turn will make them keep losing, and losing badly. They have lost their power in all branches of government, and this *after* they lost their precious Roe v Wade, which they thought would lead to an electoral bonanza. Haha! 😂 It didn’t.

      2. WOW!…………..I didn’t know there were any of you ignoramuses left??……..Thought you all moved to the 51st State…………:)

  5. Typically when Trump does illegal stuff, Truley is here doing gymnastics to show how it really is not illegal. Notice how Turley is not doing that now, because he knows what Trump is doing is indefensible.

      1. The e-mail telling federal employees to respond with what they did last week or get fired is completely illegal. Federal civil service law does not allow that.

        1. So you think that federal employees can’t be laid off or terminated at will by the Chief Executive Officer? What law are you explicitly referring too?

          1. People who say “the law does not allow such and such” but don’t specify a statute or case precedent come off as not very credible. Usually they’re just saying what they want the law to require, but they don’t really know if it does or doesn’t.

                1. This metaphor doesn’t work for Dunceocrats and RINOs. Their takeaway message from that ad is that drugs provide high protein to the brain, enabling them to think better under high pressure or heat.

              2. Typically when Trump does illegal stuff, Truley is here doing gymnastics to show how it really is not illegal… Only two ways to remove a federal employee other than a RIF (which has its own rules).

                Franke, you need to take your Internet Lawyer Degree and go Speak Your Democrat Truths to the judges the commie unions and Democrats appealed to:

                Trump can continue mass firings, US judge rules
                https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-can-continue-mass-firings-federal-workers-us-judge-rules-2025-02-20/

                You one of those fired money sucking civil service leaches, Franke? Or Gigi’s identical twin Marxist sister?

                LEARN TO CODE!

              3. 🤣🤣🤣Riiiight! You forgot the third, you are laid off and your position will not be renewed. Here’s two weeks severance and the website for the unemployment office.

    2. Turley is forward to point out “stuff” when it is not legal and “stuff” that is illegal. It just that you only focus on “stuff” that does not align with your ideology and for you, everything Trump does is illegal. and when a Judge rules against “stuff” you whine the courts are corrupt, when in fact they are following the law. Besides, what is Turley doing now but pointing out the Dems are doubling “down on hyperbolic rhetoric and false claims”. Nothing above has anything to do with Trump legality on any issue.

      1. How does pointing out that the e-mail violates federal law have anything to do with ideology? It is not even debatable that it is illegal.

        1. Franke sez: It is not even debatable that it is illegal.

          Trump can continue mass firings, US judge rules
          https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-can-continue-mass-firings-federal-workers-us-judge-rules-2025-02-20/

          Not a single one of these commies like Franke voiced the slightest concern about the Biden White House Crime LLC cartel. Not once in the last TEN YEARS! Nothing illegal there!

          Also from Franke: nothing illegal about Bribery Biden ignoring SCOTUS rulings he couldn’t transfer student loan debt from the borrowers onto the taxpayers in hopes of buying the 2024 election.

  6. THE EXECUTIVE POWER, THE WHOLE EXECUTIVE POWER, AND NOTHING BUT THE EXECUTIVE POWER, SO HELP YOU GOD

    U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer must be impeached and convicted for egregious subversion, conspiracy, corruption, insurrection, abuse of power, usurpation of power et al.

    This utterly corrupt judge knows full well that he has not a scintilla of executive power and only the president exclusively has all executive power.

    He knows full well that the President, in which all executive power is vested, may access and review “Treasury Department records containing sensitive taxpayer information, such as the Social Security and bank account numbers of millions of Americans” and any and all other information he so chooses.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Article 2, Section 1

    The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.
    __________________________________________________________________________________________

    “New York AG Letitia James Wins Ruling To Block Musk’s DOGE From Accessing Sensitive Data Of Millions Of Americans”

    “On Feb. 8, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued President Donald Trump to prevent Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department records containing sensitive taxpayer information, such as the Social Security and bank account numbers of millions of Americans.

    “According to Time Magazine, the suit, filed in New York City, alleged that the Trump administration’s decision to give Musk and his DOGE team access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system violated federal law.

    “In his ruling, Englemayer, an appointee of President Barack Obama, stated that anyone prohibited from accessing sensitive data retroactive to Jan. 20, must immediately destroy all copies of any material downloaded from Treasury Department systems.”

    – Black Enterprise (i.e. [Oxymoron])

    1. It’s all in COBAL from 1968 and anyone can hack it.

      School administrator on intercom: The intercom isn’t working. Someone has taken all the purple paper from supply room. Please return it. If you cannot hear this message please report it to the office.

  7. OT

    “Postal Service and letter carrier union at an impasse over new labor contract”

    “DeJoy announces plans to step down as USPS postmaster general”

    – Federal News Network
    ____________________________

    When UPS takes over the USPS (sarc/on), will the Postal Workers make the same $170K as UPS workers?

    “Every house, every day” delivery will always be an unprofitable, “cost-plus,” military-type operation—exactly what the USPS is now.

    Did the U.S. Army eliminate deficits and come in “under budget” for World War Two?

    Why was UPS gifted parcels, the “cream of the crop?”

    Why was UPS allowed to abscond with the lucrative “profit center” parcels from the United States Post Office Department after 1913 and not required to assume mail delivery?

    Not to worry, Elon Musk will figure it out.

  8. As I’ve been saying since Jan 20th, keeping focussed on the distress of the left is pure escapist entertainment. We conservatives are now the governing majority nationally. We are the ones responsible for foreign policy, for ending lawfare, for resolving tricky economic problems, with the private free speech infospace, with the long-term environment, with the health of the nation, with educational mediocrity.

    Andy McCarthy over at National Review is suggesting that Pam Bondi is stepping into dangerous territory with her Weaponization Group. The personalities she has loaded this group with are driven by an impulse for counter-lawfare.
    Counter-lawfare is lawfare from a blind justice perspective.

    To start with people you don’t like, and then search Beria-like for laws they may have broken — and have people with strong political loyalty to Trump be the prosecutors — this is a huge mistake (if you’re opposed to lawfare).

    Much better would be to create a group composed of lawyers vetted for neutrality-independence from the 2 parties, and send cases involving candidates and campaigns to this special group.

    1. pbinca posted As I’ve been saying since Jan 20th, keeping focussed on the distress of the left is pure escapist entertainment.

      That’s the alternate reality you want us to believe from a California Never Trumper sailing under the false flag of being conservative? Just ignore what is actually happening – like the massive switch from open doors to securing the border as fast as possible, while simultaneously start deportations as fast as possible?

      Like eliminating the federal promotion of women being forced to submit to trannies competing against them in womens’ sports? Ending the abuse of Title Nine in order to do that?

      So you come here to lie that the actual focus isn’t actually on issues like the massive invasion of invited Illegal Aliens, the trannie agenda, but instead the focus is on “the distress of the left”?

      Andy McCarthy – who never misses an opportunity to assure his audience he doesn’t like Trump – suggests that Pam Bondi is on dangerous ground?

      Pam Bondi, who has been far higher up the criminal justice food chain than he ever achieved during his entire career. Pam Bondi, who has tried cases before SCOTUS – unlike Andy McCarthy, who would be an unknown if not for being the prosecutor who tried and convicted The Blind Sheik in New York 30 years ago. Scratch that: he had more success in his career as an author than he did during his tenure as a New York federal prosecutor.

      So with that as his CV, McCarthy and you want us to believe Bondi is making a mistake in how she deals with the vicious, radical, criminal element that have infected the Department of Justice and the offices of federal prosecutors? Like those in his former workplace, the SDNY, where they’ve spent YEARS hunting Trump since he became a politician, trying to find anything to indict him on?

      Same McCarthy who cannot propose in all his years of being a paid commentator before, during, and after Trump’s first term how to root the political and/or criminal element out of the DoJ and FBI?

      pbinca: keep Speaking Your Kalifornia Truths.

    2. BONDI WILL GO AFTER LAW BREAKERS. THAT IS NOT POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION PBINCA!!! NOT MADE UP RULES AND LAWS LIKE DEMS USED!!

    3. Wait! BOLO!

      pbinca is suddenly a “conservative?”

      In the same vein, Andy McCarthy is a Deep Deep State Bushite operative, designed to deceive and attract then mislead; McCarthy hedges everything he utters.

      Andy McCarthy furtively cringes at the thought of draining the “Swamp” he is a denizen of.

      Andy McCarthy will appear to replicate a traditionalist for an hour but will have said nothing and will absolutely not have committed to anything conservative.

  9. I want a multiparty system, but I don’t think I can trust the modern left ever again; they have shown there is no low they won’t stoop to, they will happily lie and cheat to gain power, and then they will waste no time resuming the dismantling of the country in their favor. Granted, the table had been set during the Obama years, but the level of their destruction since 2020, globally, is breathtaking.

    They aren’t full-on fascists yet, but they are mighty close. In a saner world, their numbers would be even lower, and that is a statement about their tyranny, not even an ideological stance, on my part.

    1. James
      A Jesse Ventura quote was that a two party system is one party better than Communism. He’s right, they morph into the Uniparty. The more wolves there are fighting over the sheep may yield a better result.

      1. Listen to Ventura, he will quote the Communist Manifesto denying American freedom, free enterprise, free industries, and free markets as he promises giveaways to his favorite beneficiary of the week.

  10. #74 some thought provoking comments. Whimsical points out the gov now feeds you SS. It’s not the governments place to take nor give a person money at all. Such a good point. It’s become Momma Sammy.

    Imagine an elephant in your backyard and everyday you work just to feed that elephant. 36 trillion is a monster that must be fed. It’s an outrage.

    Musk is the Texas chainsaw massacre as an image. That elephant must die. A German Shepard will be brought in after it’s dead . It eats so much less.

    The slings and arrows of OUTRAGEOUS fortune…

  11. Dear Prof Turley,

    How low can they go? Only the Shadow knows for sure.

    *FYI update. keep working as long as you can. As a recently newish Social Security recipient, I’m perfectly willing to hear a reasonable ‘Musk & the Geeks’ cash buyout option. .. SS ain’t what I thought it would be, nor what it should be.

    1. DHS
      It would not be bad if it weren’t taxed as income. It is basically a PONZI scheme. If people were mandated to put the same pre tax amount into an interest bearing account (even at fixed 5%) over their working life of 30 years as a regulated retirement account they would be golden. Then the filthy grifters in DC couldn’t steal it and abuse it as a political gain, free shit for the invading hordes, free shit for the lazy among us. If you don’t work, then you don’t get paid…quit penalizing the successful as a funding source for the corruption.

      1. Traveler- Exactly right. Both Obama and Biden stole billions from Medicare to fund other things and LBJ reached into the Social Security Trust fund for the Vietnam war. Why do you think the Dems went apoplectic when W Bush wanted to make half of SS private. The money spigot would have been turned way down but not off. They were stealing even then.
        The best thing to do is keep your jackboot on the Dem’s throat until all is accomplished then let them up and send them to prison.

      2. Say what you like about Ponzi and others offering the siren’s call to fake profits – the choice to heed the call was in investors’ hands.

        Social Security is parricipation perforce, which is a distinction with a great difference.

    2. The wife and I have been planning our retirement as if SS did not exist. Then, when we do get it, after taxes, it might pay the phone bill, a utility bill etc.

      1. USF
        If you are making over 100K in your career and meet all your credit requirements it’s a good retirement supplement. Most sole proprietors or self employed fail by listing their true income rather than schedule C off the costs and minimize salary or income in paying the bare 13%tax. Doing this really impacts the pay out at the end of the ride. You really have to do a cost analysis looking at other investments against taxes etc. a ROTH IRA seems to be a good investment idea. Discipline to never touch and discipline to never stop funding over the years. It really is a rigged game.

        1. Traveler,
          Prior to Trump, Musk and DOGE I had no faith in Congress to fix SS whatsoever. I am still skeptical anything can be done aside from cutting benefits, raising the retirement age, or some kind of increases on payroll SS tax of those working. See this article, https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/social-security-wrestles-with-63-trillion-in-unfunded-liabilities-5717907?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge
          Oh, we do have a varied portfolio to include ROTH IRAs, stocks, bonds and PMs. Our only debt is the farm payment and we make extra payments at the principal every month.

          1. I always believed COVID was a backdoor to reducing unfunded liabilities. Why else would Democrats Cuomo and Whitmer put Covid cases in elderly care facilities? What average age were the patients that died and what physical conditions did they suffer?

      2. To covet, bear false witness, and steal taxpayer dollars and other people’s money are sins.

        SS and Medicare/Aid are irrefutably unconstitutional.

        Congress has no power to tax for or fund SS and Medicare/Aid.

        Congress has no power to regulate the retirement planning industry or the healthcare insurance industry.

        These redistributionist communist services apply to 18.7% of the population and are not close to being debt, defense, or “general Welfare.”

        The whole idea of America is freedom, free enterprise, and free markets under severely limited and restricted government.

        You really should read American fundamental law, the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

        You should be ecstatic and overjoyed to be free, to endeavor, to succeed, and to have the opportunity to be self-reliant and avail yourself of the abundant services in the private sector.

        1. What would you do with the widow whose husband did not return after WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the soldier with an amputation, head injury, blind, deaf, severely mentally retarded, Quadrapalegics, and so much more?

          1. Broadly speaking, why do you believe that it isn’t the VA and servicemens’ survivor benefits and care that is supposed to look after veterans and their families? And instead suggest that’s the job of SS and Medicare/Medicaide?

            Who was told when they enlisted that the medical care for them and their families after their service ended was to come from Medicare/Medicaide?

            Let’s try this instead: why the BS? Shouldn’t your concerns be more focused on how government can piss away and waste such an enormous percentage of the tax dollars that are poured into all of those systems

  12. Generally, poll results are somewhat predictable when broken down by political party distribution of respondents.
    Looking at these weighted poll results, –in response to the ACTUAL QUESTION asked of them, 49% (almost half) of DEMOCRATS disapproved of “the way Democrats in Congress are handling their jobs,” (- greatly contributing to the overall disapproval rating).
    To me, that simply exemplifies the reality that the Democrat poll-respondents are disappointed that their congressional representatives are not being pushy, aggressive, insulting, obstructive, conniving, or dishonest enough to please.

  13. Some people wonder how the democrats still have as much support as they do. Remember that the highest % any president has ever achieved in the popular vote was barely 61%. So no matter who you are, 40%, at least will vote against you. Also remember that the standard definition of a “landslide” in American Politics (for president) is 55 %.

    1. If they had sense enough to be embarrassed for themselves, they wouldn’t keep voting this lying nonentity into his position.

  15. For voters of both parties – voters that love their country and Constitution more than their party – all Americans should be supporting “Gerrymandering Reform” and “Ranked Choice Voting”. Every voting district should have a healthy competition of ideas and represent all of us.

    In many voting districts, they are almost exclusively Democrat or exclusively Republican. Politicians have virtually no competition and can literally ignore the voters not in their party.

    If you are unlucky enough to be in the out party, you literally get ignored by your members of Congress and state legislators. This makes Americans even more divisive since law makers can ignore their constituents and still get re-elected.

    1. Yes, if we would only get on board with “Ranked Choice Voting” like Alaska did, the Democrats could be rewarded by having Republicans like Senator Lisa Murkowski as their opposition.

    2. Trump is dead to me.

      Trump doesn’t care.
      We don’t care.
      Why would you think either Trump or the rest of us felt a need to know that Trump hurt you right in the middle of your feels?

      If you’re a recently laid off bureaucracy drone, Bribery Biden already gave you a roadmap for your future:

      Learn To Code

    1. The “betterment of humanity” is freedom.

      The “betterment of humanity” is the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

      Period.

  18. I scrolled past an item yesterday and the caption was to the effect (there was a photo of a man claiming to be a recently fired IRS worker) that the man was stating “I thought the government was supposed to take care of me”.

    Until that frame of mind is eradicated from the minds of all our current government parasites, we will never change anything, no matter what MAGA supporters believe. The corruption is enabled by those parasites who rely on that system.

    Ever since the socialists of FDR, we have created a cultural attitude that is diametrically in opposition to what our founding fathers found necessary for the l

    functioning of our constitution. We have created a population devoid of the concept of individual responsibility and created the hordes of th I se reliant on a check from Uncle Sam for eir existance; whether it is a SS check, a welfare check, agovernment paycheck or a government subsidy check of numerous sorts.

    End ing that dependence will require far more than a chainsaw AND THAT is what the dems are counting on.

  20. In other interesting news, California Lesbian fire captain stabbed to death by her wife. The wife had previously stabbed her husband to death:

    2. “stabbed to death by her wife. The wife had previously stabbed her husband to death”

      At least the murdering wife exhibited no gender bias…

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