Dog Poop, Hipsters More Popular Than Congress In Latest Public Policy Polling Survey

Congressional approval currently languishes at historic lows, but what does that really mean?

According to the latest figures from Public Policy Polling, Congress has an 8 percent approval rating. The survey, conducted by the agency from Oct. 4 - 6, found that a nationally representative group of 502 voters had a higher opinion of dog poop than Congress, by an (ahem) "potent" 7 percent margin.

In an interesting twist, hipsters -- that much-maligned group of disaffected youth so often blamed for doing little with their lives -- were also seen as preferrable to Congress. Ironic, indeed.

Voters preferred hipsters over Congress by a margin of 9 percent, and not because of an oversampling of likely skinny-jeans wearers, either: 18 to 29-year-olds (the population decidedly most likely to be hipsters) were the smallest population sampled in the survey.

The more-popular-than-Congress list also includes hemorrhoids, toenail fungus, potholes, the DMV, public radio fundraising drives, the IRS and zombies.

But it isn't all bad news for the legislative body responsible for the government shutdown. American voters still hold Congress in higher esteem than the Ebola virus (by 19 percent), twerking (by only 4 percent, inside the margin of error), Anthony Weiner (27 percent) and heroin (29 percent).