Take time to highlight overlooked heroics

It’s homecoming at CSC. The student body is set to crown its royalty this evening, and Saturday, the football team is hoping to send Adams State home with a loss.

The theme this year is “Heroes,” and there’s no doubt that many of us will highlight comic book characters or members of our armed forces.

But there’s one group from the exhaustive laundry list of obvious candidates that we all forget about: Congress.

Just think about it.

Through their tireless service to bureaucracy and partisanship, our elected officials savagely defend constituents against the throes of public interest.

Politician’s penchants for cheap suits and terrible haircuts illustrate how they consciously dispel the “dog and pony show.”  By avoiding useless pageantry, it frees them up to focus on what’s important: denying citizen’s liberties and rights.

Selflessness is another Congressional quality often overlooked. This week, Congress went above and beyond to consider their fellow civil servants.  They saw how hard Federal employees work, and in an act of unspeakable empathy, orchestrated a government shutdown in order to give them a much needed fall break.

Our congress has admirably shown time and time again, that it’s politics over principle.  Compromise is a sign of weakness; and even if there’s a gun to their heads, Congress has the super-human ability to avoid flinching in the face of an impending default. That brand of courage will surely come in handy when our checks to China bounce like a trampoline.

Heroic as our Congress may be, there’s no good superhero without a good sidekick.  After all, it is us, the faithful electorate, that imbues politicians with their superpowers.

Congressional approval ratings remain at around 14 percent, but with every election, “we the people” help shield congress from Kryptonite with the lead of our ballots.