In any given week, Gallup publishes the results of a number of polls. The Feb. 21 poll shows “No Momentum in Quality Jobs Market in U.S.” Three polls from Feb. 20 show that “Republicans, Democrats Agree on Top Foreign Policy Goals,” “Employee Engagement Increases in China, but Still Very Low” and “Americans Say Preventing Terrorism Top Foreign Policy Goal.” The variety increases with the number of days back one goes into the Gallup archives.

There is, however, a certain amount of consistency to Gallup’s polling. Some inquiries, such as President Barack Obama’s job approval rating, occur more often than others. Another example is its measure of Americans’ approval of Congress, which is taken every month or so.

When asked “Do you approve of the way Congress is handling its job?” only 15 percent of Americans said they approve. Given the question, the response is not surprising.

Congress is an institution made up of hundreds of individuals from hundreds of different constituencies. Since the institution of Congress has changed only once since the Constitution was ratified in 1788 (popular election of senators with the 17th Amendment), it is safe to say that most Americans approve of Congress.

Election returns suggest that most Americans probably approve of how their representatives and senators are handling their job in Congress. In the November 2012 election, 91 percent of candidates for the U.S. House and Senate who were running for reelection won. Those that lost, the Washington Post reported, “lost in large part because their district boundaries were drawn in redistricting to be tougher.” Since 1964, congressional candidates for reelection have won more than 85 percent of the time. What Americans do not approve of, apparently, is how their neighbors’ and fellow Americans’ representatives and senators are doing their job.

The scope of the question “Do you approve of the way Congress is handling its job?” is very broad. Given the exposure over the past few weeks of the Obama administration’s use of drones to kill terrorism suspects — including American citizens and the people physically close to them — perhaps it should be argued that Congress’ main job is to take a very active part in creating the laws and policies of this country and reduce the imperial presidency to its real job of executing the laws made by the American people. That Constitutional argument, however, is probably far from the average American’s mind.

Instead, we focus on more attractive, less nefarious issues that are closer to home. In its analysis of its poll, Gallup said, “Congress currently faces many difficult issues, including the looming sequestration of federal spending funds, the needs for a new federal budget and spending bill, pressure to pass new gun control and immigration legislation, and continuing efforts to reconcile vastly different perspectives on government spending more broadly.”

A common complaint is that politicians engage in too much media grandstanding, that they prefer to save their arguments, insights, thoughts and evidence not for each other — who they have to work with and convince on a daily basis — but for the American people watching the evening news in their living room. When individual members of Congress must play to the audience of the whole American people rather than just their constituency, however, record-breaking partisanship is not surprising.