17% Want Their Children To Grow Up To Be Politicians

"I wanna grow up to be a politician. …" Just don't tell your folks.

Only 17% of U.S. voters want their child to grow up to be a politician, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Sixty-three percent (63%) say, No way.

But one-out-of-five (20%) aren't sure whether it's a good idea or not. Maybe in part that's because the rest of the line from the 1971 song by the Byrds goes, "I wanna grow up to be a politician - and take over this beautiful land." Nice job if you can get it, and it pays well, too.

Democrats are more enthusiastic about having a politician in the family than Republicans are. Twenty-two percent (22%) of Democrats want their child to grow up to be a politician, compared to 14% of both Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party.

Liberals are more than twice-as-likely as conservatives to like their child to be in politics.

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Undoubtedly, part of the problem for the naysayers is the low public esteem in which most politicians are held.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of voters say most congressmen put their own careers ahead of helping the people who elected them.

Members of Congress have now surpassed corporate CEOs to hold the least favorably regarded profession in the country among nine major jobs that Rasmussen Reports periodically asks adults about.

Only four percent (4%) of voters say most politicians keep their campaign promises. Forty-five percent (45%) believe they deliberately make false promises to get elected.

Voters by more than two-to-one think high congressional reelection rates are the result of election rules that are "rigged to benefit members of Congress."  

Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters find it unlikely that Congress will seriously address the most important issues facing our nation. That's the highest level found on the question since July 2008. Just 15% of voters now give Congress good or excellent ratings, while most (53%) rate the legislature as poor.

Most voters also say that what the media thinks is more important to the average member of Congress than what voters think.

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This national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports November 7-8, 2009. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence (see methodology).

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.