Comedian takes on our joke of a Congress

It’s hardly surprising to hear that Congress hasn’t exactly been running smoothly, and yet every time we’re reminded of its ineptitude, we’re still disappointed.

Seth Rogan was especially disappointed when 16 senators failed to appear, or worse, left in the middle of his address about financing Alzheimer’s research.

Rogan’s heartfelt speech was spurred by his personal experience with the devastation of Alzheimer’s. His mother-in-law suffers from the disease. Though he started with a few ice-breaker jokes, it was pretty clear Rogan took the issue and the platform seriously.

So it boggles our minds why some members of Congress couldn’t respect him enough to just show up.

Perhaps they take his political involvement as a novel publicity stunt, and that’s why they didn’t feel the need to pay attention. But the truth is, for Rogan and the American people, it was anything but a joke. Rogan tweeted after the address, calling out the absence of all but two senators, saying it was symbolic of the lack of priority that Alzheimer’s seems to have in Congress.

To the Editorial Board, it seems characteristic of the lack of priority Congress has been exhibiting to the American people, period.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects people of every party all over the United States and in every district that these Senators represent. Caring for their constituents is their job. And even if they fail on that front, they should take this into account: Alzheimer’s affects 5 million people aged 65 and older, while the average age of a U.S. Senator is around 62.

Our Congress has fallen into such a state of ineffectiveness and removal from the well-being of the American people that its members can’t even bring themselves to pay attention to legislation that could benefit some of their own.

It is a simple issue to agree on, and can anyone really say they don’t want people suffering from Alzheimer’s to get some help? But even this bipartisan issue, that anyone could at least consider, doesn’t get the time of day. For 16 of the 18 senators who were supposed to attend, something else was more important than doing their jobs.

The saddest part is that attendance records this dismal are the norm. Rogan expressed the Editorial Board’s exact concern when he responded to this behavior on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews: “It’s indicative of a mentality that we find so frustrating. It seems like these people don’t care.”

It has reached the point where we have Hollywood actors, whose contribution to society up until now was “genetalia-driven comedy,” taking more of an interest in the American people and policy than the people who have made it their careers.

Congress needs to wake up and get to work.

Whether they can actually get to work and actually accept responsibility for policy in this country is another question.

opinion@idsnews.com