People hate Congress more than Jar Jar Binks

[frunk]

People hate Congress more than Jar Jar Binks

In terms of irritating, incompetent creatures who get in the way of everything we want to see, most Americans overwhelmingly prefer Jar Jar Binks to the United States Congress. That's according to a chart put together by the Washington Post, which combined favorability ratings for political figures taken from a Gallup Poll, and a recent survey FiveThirtyEight conducted on the Star Wars films. There were some surprises: People claim to like Padme more than Boba Fett, and Anakin Skywalker more than Darth Vader; and at least one percent of respondents who said they've watched a Star Wars film and live on planet Earth were "unfamiliar" with Luke Skywalker. Not so surprising was that people greatly prefer their annoying, attention-seeking behaviors and disastrous Senate votes to come from computer-generated jerks, rather than electorate-generated ones.

As you can see in the below chart, in fact, pretty much any Star Wars character you can name is more popular than our government officials, with Congress bottoming out at a -65 favorability rating. And with a mere -8 rating, Jar Jar is ranked far out ahead of many of our most powerful leaders, including John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and even Mitch McConnell, whose brave leadership in the Battle of Endor apparently wasn't enough to raise his standings. (Most Americans agree McConnell was smart to recognize it was a trap, but he shouldn't have called for that tactical retreat. It just made him look cowardly.)

[Caliga]

Meesa not surprised.

[Josquius]

Surprising people remember who that is

[alfred russel]

The star wars ratings aren't really a relevant comparison. The question regarded how people view the characters, which could be interpreted whether they were worthy fictional artistic creations, rather than whether their real life incarnations would be considered favorably or unfavorably.

[Eddie Teach]

The star wars ratings aren't really a relevant comparison. The question regarded how people view the characters, which could be interpreted whether they were worthy fictional artistic creations, rather than whether their real life incarnations would be considered favorably or unfavorably.

If that was widespread you wouldn't see Luke with a 60 point lead on his dad.

[Capetan Mihali]

Jar Jar has his partisans.   Interpreting things in the Jar-Jar voice is a great party trick/way to make people hate you. 

[alfred russel]

The star wars ratings aren't really a relevant comparison. The question regarded how people view the characters, which could be interpreted whether they were worthy fictional artistic creations, rather than whether their real life incarnations would be considered favorably or unfavorably.

If that was widespread you wouldn't see Luke with a 60 point lead on his dad.

It isn't universal, but I doubt it is negligible either. Luke is about 90% net favorable, Darth Vader ~28%. Those equate to:
Luke favorable 95%, unfavorable 5%
Vader favorable: 64%, unfavorable 36%

Would 64% really have a favorable view of a real life darth vader? So maybe he is getting credit for a late life conversion...but then the Emperor is a net positive, and he is basically pure evil. I think a lot of the positives are coming from people like the artistic construction of the fictional character, rather than the actual person he would be in reality.

[Ed Anger]

The Jedi are the Gestapo of the Republic.

[Grinning_Colossus]

People often forget that Jar Jar Binks was himself a congressman.

[Syt]

And he was the one who called for giving the chancellor emergency powers.

[Razgovory]

I did forget that.  Thanks for reminding me.

[Syt]

People often forget that Jar Jar Binks was himself a congressman.

He was a senator.

[Viking]

I want to see Palpatine's stats compared to Cheney's, given that they are in fact the same person this would iron out any biases towards apparently fictional characters.

[Norgy]

Jar Jar has his partisans.   Interpreting things in the Jar-Jar voice is a great party trick/way to make people hate you. 

It's also a good way to make news headlines a little less sad, but vastly more irritating.

[Valmy]

Palpatine would bring the sort of ruthlessness one needs to run this country these days.