Excellent points.
And you offer yet another reason why lawyers should be barred (pun intended) from legislative positions.
I fear that many of our problems today stem from the fact that far too many of our legislators are LAWYERS. Further, I believe that we need more DOCTORS – and engineers in those positions – and NO LAYWERS!!
Lawyers as legislators pose a very, very serious problem for an ostensibly free people: They LOVE making laws and the more complex and incomprehensible the better. Think about it: In the private sector – to which many of them return (hopefully in HUGE NUMBERS IN 2010!!) – they, and their buds who remain behind in the private sector, earn their often obscene incomes (in addition to the obscenely generous, COLA congressional pensions and tax subsidized HEALTH CARE!) wading through that Byzantine labyrinth of rules and regulations they, themselves, constructed. It’s a process that prompted Otto von Bismarck to remark that “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” Can I get an “AMEN?”
While there ARE exceptions (Bill Frist toward the end of his term, Phil Gingrey — who strays from time to time) my rule that physicians and engineers make better legislators than most lawyers generally holds true. I attribute that to the fact that doctors and engineers are trained in the SCIENTIFIC METHOD and rely more on FACTS and EMPIRICAL DATA for their decisions. Ron Paul, Larry McDonald, Paul Broun, John Linder, Tom Price are (or were) all doctors. I’m sure you can think of other examples/exceptions. The poster boy for the exceptions is “Screamin’ Howard Dean, MD.
Unfortunately, far too many of these guys are ATTORNEYS.
Our late friend and author, composer, conductor, Nashville music producer, lover of Bach, pianist and all-around Renaissance man, Tupper Saussy, who somehow dodged the family tradition of becoming one, traced the term “attorney” back to the Sanscrit word “torwa.” And what does “torwa” mean? TO TWIST! And twist they do. Unfortunately, it’s not in the wind.
While SOME of these attorney-legislators are conservatives, their law school moot court training forced them to argue BOTH SIDES OF THE SAME CASE. I rather suspect that experience allows them to rationalize voting against the Constitution when expediency and/or their political survival/favor with their party leadership dictates. It is textbook moral relativism and we all pay for their perfidy.
Let me tie that attorney-legislator problem into the current health care debate: I might have missed it but I don’t believe there was one mention of TORT REFORM from the lawyers who cobbled together that 1,000+ page monstrosity now dividing the nation.
I’ll give you three guesses as to why — and the last two don’t count!
And here’s something to think about for the primary elections to the 2010 general election: If the attorney-legislator representing your district does not pass muster at www.gradegov.com, if you can, find a NON-LAWYER for whom to vote after grilling him on the first principles near and dear to those who cherish freedom and the Constitution.
Too hard, say you?
No. SLAVERY is hard.
BTW, FREEDOM HAS AN ADDRESS: IT’S HTTP://WWW.JBS.ORG
Welll..... I can't agree with you on that. There are lawyers and then there are lawyers. Most lawyers are actually good, honest folks whose professional training is a positive asset in crafting solid legislation, and also in understanding the legal ramifications of the activities over which Congress has legitimate oversight. Those sorts of folks are good to have around.
Unfortunately, there is also that class of lawyers who have figured out how to make a good living by finding the cracks and gaps in the law.... and those are the ones who tend to be attracted to Congressional careers; and who (I agree) need to be cast into the outer darkness.
As to needing more engineers in Congress .... well, speaking as an engineer, I'd have to say that's not a good plan. In my experience, engineers tend to be folks who are comfortable with things that behave predictably, and that can be arranged as necessary to accomplish a specific task.
For the same reason, engineers tend to be incredibly naive about the interpersonal dynamics that govern actual politics; people just don't work that way.