Someone could both think that Congress is doing a good job and be proud of their country.

Example: 100 people. 88 are proud of America. 11 are happy with congress. 10 are both.

88+11-10=89

89% are either proud or happy or both.

You don;t have the poll numbers for the ‘both’ category, so you can’t do any meaningful arithmetic.

88% – normal Americans
11% – idiots
—
1% – remainder – unavailable because off writing comments on blogs. Probably closer in nature o the 11%.

It’s so rare that I could even venture to employ an example of Set Theory as a response to any post in the blogosphere.

The USA and the Congress of the USA are disjoint sets in the view of the poll respondents – the Universal Set.

I think that’s right but it’s been a while since I did any of that math.

Or in other words, the Congress is not pertinent to the standing of the USA.

I may have the math wrong but that last statement feels right.:)

The Republicans emphatically have not taken advantage of this unpopularity by returning to their limited-government roots[1]. They remain the party that responded to their loss of Congress by restoring Trent Lott to the leadership. Apparently they’d rather be the minority under the status quo than take stands which, in addition to being principled, have brought them electoral success. Such intransigence is yet another indication that the political establishment is corrupt.

[1] Fred Thompson, whom I haven’t thought much about yet, seems the prominent exception. Normally I wouldn’t give serious consideration to a presidential candidate with Thompson’s lack of executive experience, but I increasingly wonder if it isn’t time to roll the dice.