Turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper or, God forbid, spend some time monitoring social-media outrage, and you would get the idea that Americans do not agree on very much.

Politicians frame every election as an existential crisis. Recent presidential elections suggest that we are split almost exactly 50-50 as a country. But what if the country is not nearly as divided as our politics makes it appear?

As you may have gathered from previous columns, I am a big fan of polls and surveys. I went looking for issues with at least 75% support. Here are a few that caught my eye:

  • 83% of Americans support congressional term limits.
  • 86% believe members of Congress should not be allowed to trade individual stocks while in office.

The agreement extends even to issues we are told are hopelessly divisive.

  • On election security, 83% support requiring government-issued photo identification to vote.
  • A Pew survey found that 79% support raising the minimum age for purchasing a gun to 21.
  • Even on immigration, Gallup found that 81% favor allowing immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to become citizens if they meet certain requirements.

Of course, agreement on a broad objective is not the same as agreement on every detail. Term-limit supporters may disagree about how many terms should be allowed. An earned path to citizenship raises questions about eligibility, enforcement and border security. But working through those details is what legislating is supposed to be about. Disagreement over the fine print should not become an excuse for doing nothing.

All these issues have one thing in common; despite their popularity, none of them have resulted in legislation.

We spend a lot of time wondering why the country is so divided. But the more vexing question is this: Why is our representative government unable to act when the people it represents broadly agree?

The problem is not that we lack consensus. The problem is that we are remarkably bad at translating consensus into legislation.

High on my list of reasons is the media.

If you are of a certain vintage, you may remember CNN’s Crossfire, which began in 1982. Its formula was simple. Put a voice from the ideological right opposite a voice from the ideological left and frame every issue as a binary choice. Hollering, bad manners and interruption were part of the formula.

The show gave rise to what I call the Crossfire Effect. The two loudest ideological poles are presented as representative of the entire country. Everything becomes black or white, right or left. There is little room for nuance or discussion of the broad center of public opinion.

Journalist Amanda Ripley, in her book “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out,” popularized the term “conflict entrepreneurs” to describe people and institutions that benefit from keeping others trapped in destructive conflict.

Conflict sells. Consensus does not. Outrage attracts viewers. Fear raises money. Anger drives turnout. A negotiated solution may be good for the country, but the unresolved grievance is often better for the politician, television personality or advocacy organization. Many times, politicians would rather have the issue than a negotiated solution.

Politicians also do not necessarily answer to the average voter. They answer to primary voters, donors, party activists and advocacy groups that may view compromise as a dirty word. An elected official may want to serve the 80% but live in fear of the 20% who see working across the aisle as weakness.

Members of Congress also represent districts and states that do not always line up with the national average. In our current environment, refusing to negotiate can look principled, while reaching an agreement can be attacked as surrender.

So, here’s the rub. America may be an 80% country governed by a political system that behaves as though we are permanently split 50-50. There is plenty of common ground, but conflict entrepreneurs competing for our eyeballs, votes and dollars have every incentive to convince us otherwise.

Maybe the silent majority needs to make a little noise.