Public opinion Polls are only as good as the pollsters and the questions they ask. It’s easy to skew the results, either intentionally or not, and poll results always should be viewed with some suspicion.

Take Congress, which like Rodney Daingerfield gets no respect these days.

The public’s approval of our Senators and Representatives is hovering around 10 per cent. Compared with some past polls, this makes the institution about as popular as a Communist takeover of the United States and less popular than Paris Hilton, BP during the Gulf oil spill, banks, and lawyers. Even the spin doctors can’t make those numbers look good.

National Public Radio recently suggested an explanation for the dismal poll results, speculating that the low ratings mean that Congress is ignoring the will of the people, and the people resent it. The NPR report did not specifically address horse slaughter, but it raises an important question: Does the legislative process aid or thwart the will of the people when it comes to slaughter? To answer that question, we need to ask another one: what do we, the people, actually want