I wrote the following a LONG time ago (when X42 was president). It was published in several newspapers at the time and may be of interest to you.
James Madison, author of the US Constitution, wrote:
"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty than that ... the accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
To avoid the "same hands" accumulation of power, the Constitution incorporated a system of "separation of powers" and "checks and balances". This system created three separate branches of government. The Legislative (Congress), which makes the laws, the Judiciary (the Courts), which interprets the laws and the Executive (the Presidency), which enforces the laws. By separating the powers of government in this manner it was intended that each branch would serve as a "check" and "balance" to the powers of the other two. This was done in order to make certain that the government would never possess sufficient power to oppress the people. Our government currently looks like this: · The Judicial branch is, of necessity, composed of 100% lawyers · The executive office is currently held by a lawyer · And the within the 535 legislative seats of the U. S. Congress there are more lawyers than all other professions combined I would submit that Mr. Madison’s greatest fear has been realized despite his best effort (Via the Constitution) to prevent it. Lawyer/judges now make the laws, interpret the laws and enforce the laws and have effectively turned our Constitutional Republic into a Juristocracy, thus defeating the spirit, intent and purpose of the Constitution. Please understand that I hold the legal profession in very high regard and have no personal animosity toward either individual members or the profession in general. In fact, I believe that I am lucky enough to be able to count a number of the members of this honored profession as friends (at least until they read this!). That not withstanding, I will assure you that, because of my knowledge of the above, I would oppose any one of them vigorously, regardless of political party affiliation, should they EVER decide to run for elective office outside the Judicial branch of government. My hope is that those of you reading this, and thus now aware of the problem, will remember it the next time you are called upon to make choices in the election booth as well.