Friday Topic: What Do Low Approval Ratings for Leaders Reveal?

June 29, 2007

SHARE

A new poll shows Oregonians’ confidence in elected officials at an all time low. The same poll says illegal immigration is the second most important issue in Oregon, after education, but, as we pointed out earlier in the week on the show, those two issues are intertwined and Oregon politicos just don’t want to own up to it. When you have a $1.4 million dollar* impact at only three Portland area schools (and I’m sure it was worse) after the Fresh Del Monte raid, extrapolate that out to other school districts in Oregon (say Hillsboro and Woodburn for instance) and you have a HUGE impact on schools. Local officials like to say the problem of illegal immigration is national, not local, but if Oregon took more measures to make this state less hospitable to illegal immigrants, we might actually make our schools more responsive to citizens instead of catering to the ELL crowd.
Along with that poll we find that Oregonians don’t have much confidence in congress and the legislature. Hibbitts attributes it to George Bush’s low approval ratings. But while some of this is due to the malaise of the second term presidency and the drag effect of Iraq, congressional reps–especially D’s–have only themselves to blame.
When they should have paid attention to being responsible adult legislators they took out their pea shooters and put a picture of George Bush on their dartboards. That was sophomoric, devastating and wrong. They were seen as feckless as a result. They were perceived as being concerned only about their elections instead of looking out for our country. For their part, the R’s looked weak and vacillating on the biggest issue of our lives: national security.
The result is both sides, but especially the D’s, spent their political capital bringing down the president in the esteem of the populace and that lack of confidence slopped over and soaked their candidacies. Of course the American public doesn’t trust them, they stand for nothing but their own naked political greed and it’s clear they’ve sold out the country.
You can’t blame all that on the president Tim Hibbits.

*Cost per student as figured by the difference of absences the day of the raid and the day after the raid.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com