That's Congress's general approval rating, when you ask someone to nonspecifically rate "Congress". When you ask them to rate their own specific Congressperson

That's Congress's general approval rating, when you ask someone to nonspecifically rate "Congress". When you ask them to rate their own specific Congressperson (which is who they can vote for or against), approval averages around 45-50%, and rises to 60% among people who actually know the Representative's name [1]. So the average American strongly dislikes Representatives from other districts, but is okay with their own. [1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/162362/americans-down-congress-own-representative.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/162362/americans-down-congress-ow...