The Will of the People: Gridlock

Politicians are fond of promising to break through partisan gridlock and deliver results. Our current president is no exception. Here's President Obama earlier this year, venturing into enemy territory at a House Republican retreat in Baltimore, on what "the American people" want:

They didn't send us to Washington to fight each other in some sort of political steel-cage match to see who comes out alive. That's not what they want. They sent us to Washington to work together, to get things done, and to solve the problems that they're grappling with every single day.

There's only one problem: That's apparently not what the people actually sent their leaders to Washington to do. In a new Society for Human Resource Management/National Journal Congressional Connection poll, 49 percent of Americans said they prefer "political leaders who stick to their positions without compromise." Only 42 percent said they would rather have leaders who "make compromises with someone they disagree with." (Nine percent can't make up their minds about what kind of leaders they like.)

Broken down along party lines, 62 percent of Republicans prefer the stick-to-their-guns type, while 54 percent of Democrats backed compromisers. Independents were on the no compromise side by a 53-40 percent margin.

So the next time you hear someone complain about politicians in Washington being unable to work together, you might remind them that those politicians are only responding to the will of the voters.