Does the ‘Consent of the Governed’ Still Matter?
Most voters don’t feel very well represented by Congress, and believe the federal government no longer has “the consent of the governed.”
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 19% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the average member of Congress listens most to the voters he or she represents. Sixty-seven percent (67%) think the average member listens most to party leaders in Congress, and another 14% are not sure. That’s actually an improvement from the 10% who thought Congress members listened most to voters when we last asked this question in 2015. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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The survey of 1,002 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on July 13 and 16-17, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research.
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