Let's stop kidding ourselves: Americans love their politicians

Though numbers are hard to come by, it is reasonable to assert that Americans are less apt to renew their cell phone plans, credit cards and gym memberships than they are to reelect their politicians. In most districts, Americans discard trends, pop stars and actors/actresses with a far higher frequency than they do Senators. A more accurate – or perhaps a less imperfect – method of measuring congressional approval ratings would be to compile the approval poll of all 435 representatives and calculate the average. The present method of polling basically asks voters: What do you think of everyone else’s stupid choices. A question rigged to bring you a preposterously low and useless number in an era of heightened partisan warfare.

With that said, I would contend that creating more competitive races in the general elections is a awfully overrated idea. Districts are now generally represented by a person who, broadly speaking, reflects the attitudes and aspirations of those who inhabit their district. This is far more desirable than creating hundreds of battleground districts across the country, which would only further politicize American life. What should be concerning to populists is the fact that within the primary system, the place where genuine change can be made, incumbents lose at an even rarer pace. Since 1968, only 130 representatives and 24 senators have lost primary contests. Since 2008, only 16 Republicans have lost in nearly a thousand races.