…that even “Big Business”—think Wall Street, corporations, big-box retailers, the payday lenders—is more trusted by the American public than the 111th United States Congress. That’s just one punchline for this sad, unfunny joke. Want another? Trying swapping out big business for, say, the criminal justice system. Yes, that broken criminal justice—the one that imprisons 1 in every 100 Americans, that sentences petty marijuana users to life behind bars without parole, that currently imprisons more black men than were enslaved in 1850, that each year eats away the anemic budgets of states like Michigan and California—is more popular than Congress.
At least that’s what a new Gallup public confidence poll shows. Right now, the public’s confidence in our federal legislative body, Gallup finds, is a meager 11 percent; the president fares somewhat better, with 36 percent of the public’s confidence, tied with the US Supreme Court. Only three groups have more than 50 percent of the public’s confidence: the police (59), small businesses (66), and the military (76).
Here are the results from the Gallup poll:
