Much of the focus of pollsters and public opinion experts this election season is on the question of who is going to win control of the House and the Senate. Who is going to win is important, but a more lasting concern is what the public thinks the House and the Senate should be doing once the election is over, the dust clears, and Congress gets back into session in January. The House and the Senate exist for one purpose, and that is to represent the people of the nation -- since all of the people of the nation can't get together and make decisions on what they want their government to do on a daily basis.
So, regardless of who wins in November, exactly what is it that the people of the country want their elected representatives to do? I would say that comes down to four domains.
1. The economy. This is central and the most important factor in Americans' lives. There are substantial and very real differences in exactly what different segments of the U.S. population want the government to do, or not to do, relating to the economy. But the bottom line is that focusing on the appropriate role of the government in terms of enhancing economic progress and in particular creating jobs is the No. 1 priority from the public's perspective, based on everything we measure. I would include in this domain the stewardship of economic entitlement programs, which are highly institutionalized at this point, and which Americans have come to depend on financially -- including in particular Social Security. Economic concerns, taken as a whole, are overwhelmingly identified by the people of the nation as the most important problem facing the country.
2. Fixing government. "Physician, heal thyself," comes from the book of Luke in the New Testament, and in this setting can be applied in a slightly variant form: "Congress, heal thyself." Dysfunctional government is just below economic concerns in frequency of mentions when Americans are asked to name the most important problem facing the country, and the top-of-mind frequency with which Americans mention problems with government itself has increased steadily since January 2009.
I needn't at this point review all of the many different measures we are tracking that show the very low regard in which Americans hold their federal government and the legislative branch in particular. If interested, I would suggest you read this, and this, and this, and this carefully. This distrust, if not disdain, for government is a situation that has very substantial consequences for this country at this time.
More than anything else, our data show that Americans are displeased with Congress because members lose sight of the overall goal of working together as a group. Instead, they are focusing on more specific elements of the representatives' or senators' egos, on their ability to be re-elected, on their campaign financial situations, and on the implications of any and all actions for the standing and future of social groupings of which the representative or senator may be a member -- namely political parties and ideological groups. Taken as a whole, Americans reject this view that their representatives should focus on enhancing their own careers and their party's agenda. Americans indicate that the sacrifice of the personal or group principles should be undertaken in order to further the greater good. As one of our respondents said when asked to name the most important problem facing the nation in our Sept. 4-7 survey: "Government leaders on both sides of the aisle think of themselves first, their party second, and they never think about the American people."
Members of Congress are well aware of the low esteem in which they are held, and typically reduce the resulting cognitive dissonance by responding that they personally are doing a good job, even while others in their body are not. This is an example of the focus on individuals that I mentioned earlier; the people would rather the representative take responsibility for the functioning of the body as a whole, rather than arguing that it is someone else's fault and/or that the representative is well-liked by his or her particular constituents. If the body gets at 14% approval rating from the American people as a whole, then every member of that body has failed in the eyes of 86% of the public.
3. Social institution maintenance. All complex societies need what sociologists call "social institutions"-- organized sets of rules and procedures and systems that help maintain certain necessary and valuable social functions. The five such functions are usually listed as the economy, family, government, education, and religion. I think health can be added to that list. Americans, taken as a whole, are less interested in their representatives focusing on family and religion, although for segments of the population some family-related issues are keenly important. But Americans, taken as a whole, are interested in their elected representatives dealing with the other institutions. I've talked above about the economy and government. That leaves education and healthcare. The government is highly involved in both of these institutions.
The precise role that the federal government should play in education is debatable from the people's perspective -- but that's the point. The people would like government to be focused on what it should or should not be doing, or what it can do or what should be left to others to do, to enhance education both at the K-12 level and at the post-high school level.
The federal government's involvement in healthcare is not without controversy. The government is very much a part of the nation's healthcare systems. Medicare and Medicaid are huge government healthcare programs that consume huge proportions of every federal tax dollar received. Most medical residents are supported by Medicare. Much medical research is supported by the federal government. And, most controversial of all, the federal government become substantially more involved in the nation's healthcare with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Overall, the public views healthcare as an important problem facing the country, and how the government handles all of its existing and potential responsibilities in this arena is of critical concern to Americans.
4. Dealing with external threats. A primary purpose of the government is to use its ability to combine the people's tax monies to train and mount military, police, and intelligence forces in order to protect the people from external threats. This classic role of government includes defense against nations and entities that would or have threatened the country directly, and also includes dealing with those living outside the country who would like to come into the country as immigrants. This, in today's world, is a highly complex function with the advent of non-statist groups who have as their avowed purpose the destruction of other nations and groups. This is an area in which the public generally reports being more satisfied than it is with other areas. The military in fact generates more confidence from the public than any other entity. The data suggest that this remains a key and critical area for government focus.
All in all, when we wake up on Nov. 5, no matter who wins control of the House and the Senate, these -- in broad strokes -- are the issues that Americans want their representatives to address when they return to Washington in January. At this point, Americans are not at all positive about how well their representatives have been handling these responsibilities. How likely that is to change with the newly elected House and with newly elected Senators remains to be seen.