I received this email tonight from one of my partners. While the sender is himself educated as an attorney, he does not make a living in the Law but owns and operates a substantial manufacturing company.
You may or may not like the politics of the non-lawyers listed below, but that does not diminish the larger point...
His email goes on to say:
Subject: Perhaps this is THE Problem
Do you think there is any substance in this analysis?
Herewith the analysis:
This is very interesting! I never thought about it this way.
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party.
* Barack Obama is a lawyer.
* Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
* Hillary Clinton is a lawyer.
* Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
* John Edwards is a lawyer.
* Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate).
Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.
Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress:
* Harry Reid is a lawyer.
* Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different.
* President Bush is a businessman.
* Vice President Cheney is a businessman.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution:
* Newt Gingrich was a history professor.
*Tom Delay was an exterminator.
* Dick Armey was an economist.
* House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer.
* The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.
The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich.
The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America . And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party, grow.
Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.
This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, in this case the American people. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become "adverse parties" of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions;
We are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives.
America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.
When lawyers use criminal prosecution as a continuation of politics by other means, as happened in the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay, then the power of lawyers in America is too great. When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.
We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real change, real reform or real hope in America Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy..
Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.
The US has 5% of the world's population and 66% of the world's lawyers!
Tort (Legal) reform legislation has been introduced in congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as 'spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you' and also to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits. This legislation has continually been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party. When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association goes to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!
End of letter.
Here we are with the most difficult issue to face the World in Centuries, one that will take the best mathematical, scientific, and ethical minds our society has to offer... and who do we have a bat? A bunch of argumentative wordsmiths.
So we got that going for us.
Libertariananimal (at) gmail (d0t) com
15 comments:
Greg, I agree with the sentiments of lawyers becoming politicians completely. I recall something I read years ago that the great, late racing car mechanic Smokey Yunick said when somebody asked him in the 1970s why the government was f'ing up cars so badly with emission controls. Smokey replied something to the effect that "most politicians are lawyers, and most lawyers' automotive engineering IQ is around 32 below zero." Beyond their lack of business sense, most lawyers I know, while pretty sharp and smart, are below average in math and science experience, study, and general aptitude. With that in mind, think of all the science, math, and engineering involved in things that government passes laws on, from energy, the environment, automotive laws, etc. Is it any wonder the job they do administering new laws in those areas is so poorly executed?
The only thing I wonder, while it's certainly true that Democrats are heavily tilted towards lawyers as far as presidents go, I wonder, looking at the break down of the entire Congress as well as governorships, if the Republicans don't have at least a bit more lawyers among their ranks than their presidents of late indicate as well? The last several Republican governors we've had here in MA were mainly lawyers, though so is our present Democratic governor dim bulb, Deval Patrick.
Regardless, becoming a lawyer really means wanting to control others instead of them controlling you and/or your client. From that starting point, running for office is a natural progression I would suppose.
This is one of the data points I have been considering and is one of the things that has led me to my current gloomy estimate; though certainly not from this perspective, until now.
A quote from Gibbon that could have been written yesterday certainly applies here:
“All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law. … the sovereign condescends to animate their diligence, by the assurance that their skill and ability would in time be rewarded by an adequate share in the government of the republic. The rudiments of this lucrative science were taught in all the considerable cities of the east and west… After a regular course of education, which lasted five years, the students dispersed themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune and honors; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business [the] great empire, already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The court of the Praetorian praefect of the east could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen, with a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favor, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state. In the practice of the bar, these men had considered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted the laws according to the dictates of private interest and the same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in the public administration of the state. …in the decline of Roman jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who, with cunning rather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, maintained the dignity of legal professors, by furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound the plainest truths, and with arguments to color the most unjustifiable pretensions. The splendid and popular class was composed of the advocates, who filled the Forum with the sound of their turgid and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they are described, for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides, who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of delay, and of disappointment; from whence, after a tedious series of years, they were at length dismissed, when their patience and fortune were almost exhausted.”
SSDD and we will get similar results.
Best,
Dan
P.s. Patent attorneys are generally engineers who go on to law school, so they can collect ridiculous fees, the simpler a concept the more it costs to patent. Regardless, one would think that they should know something of math and science. I wonder now many patent attorneys the DNC has in office?
The letter says nothing about nothing. It isn't that we have lawyers or businesspeople in government, both who are equally as likely to be idiots in any given situation. The problem is simple: after 100 years of cheap energy and lots of borrowing, which covered up a LOT of inefficiencies and allowing Americans to think we can run government and personal budget deficits forever, we have started to finally hit a wall. Nobody wants to pay taxes, nobody wants their govt. benefits cut, the Chinese and Japanese are now expected to loan us any money we need, and we are a deluded culture, thinking we can keep this up forever. We can't, and the children and grandchildren of this country will pay for our cowardice and short-sightedness. And they will have vengeance.
From the movie "The Road Warrior:"
"They talked, and talked and talked, but no one could stop the avalanche."
All the talkers, Democrats and Republicans, are unable to say that the gravy train is over. They do what we want them to do. We want them to lie and so they lie. Pathetic to the core.
I can't believe that Bureaucrat has quoted a Doomer favorite movie!
Regarding lawyers, Tocqueville actually thought that lawyers were very good for a democratic society, because they tended to be conservative... they loved precedent, and only wanted small change by degrees.
I guess the power of the lawyers got out of hand, though, and even Tocqueville might be concerned.
Lawyers are professional liars. They wish to win the case irrespective of if they believe something to be true or not, in order to achieve their agenda or that of their clients.
Perhaps it therefore goes some way to explaining the following:
What struck ME this week, was that almost all of the defining issues of this very recent age, have now (in the last week) been clearly and empirically exposed as being based on Lies in order to accomplish agendas. I wont go very far into the implications, evidence, and reasons for the lies, but they are now all there for the world to see. (they were there and obvious before to those skeptical enough to question what they were being fed)
Firstly: Global warming.
(clearly manipulated historical data emerged this week and an agenda which has been followed by a select group of highly funded scientists in order for the governments to collect more taxes and maintain competitive advantage over developing nations)
Secondly: The Iraq war.
6 different reasons for going to war, one after the other as the previous reason was shown as invalid. Tony Blair inquiry shows the extent of this as seen this week. (the war also exposes the seriousness of the issue of energy security)
Thirdly: A strong dollar policy (The decline of the dollar)
I believe deeply that it’s very important for the U.S. and the economic health of the U.S. that we maintain a strong dollar - Tim Geithner.
So, I ask myself, how are these people getting away with it? These are not theories, the empirical evidence is there! How can anyone believe a word those in power say? Why is nothing being done? These are not some minor issues, they are THE issues. These people should be thrown in jail, or as my French friend says, Guillotined in order to be made examples of. Nothing less will be enough to make the point that people are sick and tired of being lied to and manipulated.
Perhaps the reason that the Democrats are the elected government and Democrats are lawyers is related to the public being sick of the legal and illegal shenannigans of business people; Enron, Madoff, bankers, mining companies, coal companies, oil companies, agricultural companies, Dick Cheney, the Military contractors, ....
Then there's the illegal stuff the Government gets up to; Guantanamo, invading Iraq, destabilising various central american countries, Dick Cheney, the CIA,....
You can add your list of all the other people, companies and situations I've forgotten. Understandable, as there are so many!
Seems to me that a government that remembers the Law and Constitution may have some advantages!
Well looking at the names of the lawyers and non-lawyers in politics and the results of both I would say we should elect more lawyers to office.
Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, Adams were all lawyers too.
Re: hot coffee lawsuit. The old woman was burned severely enough (10% of her body)to require skin grafts and 8 days of hospitalization. Prior to her being burned and scarred there were 000's of reports of other patrons being burned and McDonalds still did nothing. They also served coffee hotter, at 190 degrees, than any other establishment. 12 jurors agreed that McDonalds was negligent. I bet if your 12 year old kid was burned over 10% of their body you'd be calling a lawyer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants
Re: Tom Delay - the writer holds Tom DeLay up as a scion of all that is good for capitalism. As if being an exterminator qualifies someone to be Speaker of the House. The writer then also mentions tort reform, but yet Tom DeLay "turned to lawyers. A wrongful-death suit against the distributor and maker of a coupling that the DeLays said..." It's ok for him to sue or unplug his father, but not ok for the Schiavos or the rest of US to protect our interests. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002221334_delay27.html
I find those who cry loudest about lawyers are the quickest to run to them. I'd like to ask the writer if he or his company have ever been party to a lawsuit.
Finally, what wealth have Bush or Cheney created? Sure, Bush was able, due to connections, get a taxpayer sweetheart deal for Ranger Stadium.
Just goes to show that someone can be an educated lawyer and the owner of a manufacturing company and still write illogical, uninformed pablum.
"The Republican Party is made of up real people doing real work." The letter appears to be something written by the likes of Glenn Beck. It's BS, but if it makes you all feel better in your echo chamber, than go ahead and read, laugh, chuckle, slap each other on the back and say, "Gee, that guy is so right." Bunch of elitists in your own right.
Obama's been in office almost a year and his middle-name is Hussein so it must be his fault.
And the country burns. Y'all are laughable.
The problem isn't too many lawyers. If we needed fewer lawyers, more of them would make no money and go out of business. The problem is the lack of compromise that permeates this country and the world. The ridiculous absolutism, where it is either my way or the highway, results in more and more lawyers who have to moderate between parties that just won't soften their positions. Since 98% of lawsuits are settled instead of being actually "judged," it isn't until you have to face a judge or jury (or the costs of your actions) that people start to see the light. You can't have it your way all the time. And the more you HAVE to have it your way, the more costly living for everyone becomes.
Abraham:
J"efferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, Adams were all lawyers too"
What Law School did they attend? They did not, they were "self educated" lawyers, as were most of our first Supreme Court justices.
What we have now is an entrenched establishment. I believe that our over population of lawyers is a huge tax on the economy, and a bigger problem for our liberties and privacy.
I am somewhat surprised at you position, given your libertarian leanings. You cannot possibly be defending the Tort Bar running the Dems by castigating the abortion politics of those Repubs mentioned, are you?
Our freedoms are being picked off one by one, and the effort is being led by the Legal profession. Be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.
Greg, isn't it shocking when some one thinks for themself?!!
Wouldn't you agree that some of the most invasive laws ever passed where the work of the last administration?
Bush and Cheney were businessmen who created value? WTF. Bush was a self confessed drunk and secret cokehead until in his 40's, a daddy's boy who was given everry business opportunity he ever had and screwed up every one of them including the last one from 2001-2009.
Cheney was on the gubbermint teat except when he was revolving door into the defense industries. Tricky Dick's gift to America. His deal with Drexler Industries almost did Halliburton in until he started the Iraq war. Check the stock prices and the history.
The Bush/Cheney Justice Department had lawyers and no one was bitching then. All politicized, bought and paid for.
BTW, Jefferson helped found the Law School of William and Mary in 1779.
I guess you want a government of Big Men, not of Law. That worked so well in the past.
Dude,
Lawyers, in some form or another, following taxes and whores are species that have always been around and are not going away.
You conservatarians have a rough life cause you're fighting destiny. Keep on beating that dead horse.
I look at lawyers kinda like medieval knights...if you got the money, you armor one up and send it out to fight your fights. Beats hand to hand any day. Otherwise, like the peasants of yore, you try to stay out of the way and not start fights.
Ain't no big deal, they just out doin' Gawd's work.
Abraham:
I rather think I am not "laughable". Why are you so angry? Is there something the Right did to you? Reading your mean spirited, angry diatribe again has left me disinclined to brush it off as the mouthings of kid - you have not lived long enough young man to be as opinionated as you appear to be.
Anon:
Jeffers NEVER went to Law School, neither William & Mary nor any other. He studied under another lawyer as an apprentice, as was the custom of the time.
Other Anon:
I think the Patriot Act to be a particularly disgusting piece of legislation. But calling GWB a drunk and a coke head? Clinton, GWB, BHO, and most of those that follow, all used illegal drugs. I will not disenfranchise a politician over the vagaries of a riotous youth.
The Legal profession is many orders of magnitude greater in power than any sitting president. I think that that was the point, and the fact that the Democratic party is an extension of the plaintiff's bar.
I was hoping for a more constructive discussion, frankly.
You say you want a more constructive dialogue and that I posted a mean spirited angry diatribe. What of your partner's letter that you posted and support?
"The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work..."
"Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich"
[The opposition sees]"...people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America."
[The opposition was responsible for]"the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay."
[The opposition hates] "Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation."
[The opposition is]"A bunch of argumentative wordsmiths."
If you throw pie don't be surprised when some lands on your face. Even a 12 year old knows that.
"Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer."
Really I wouldn't call that letter from your partner any sort of political analysis. It's more a piece written by Ann Colter or Glenn Beck.
I know you can do better. I expect better. You'll be graded accordingly. Kidding. Kidding. Kidding. Lighten up. Everyone is so serious.
Abraham:
My partner only forwarded the piece to me; he did not write it.
I thought the larger point was worth making - even though I knew that some of the story was slanted.
I do believe that the Dems are dominated by the Bar. I don't think that that is particularly new information.
If you have something analytical and constructive, by all means, post it in the comments and I will copy an paste it into the Blog.
I don't edit stuff.
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