Posted on 04/20/2008 8:22:56 PM PDT by shove_it
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer and so is his wife Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.) Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Benson, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. 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 thirty-one 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. The Democratic 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 which 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 use, 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.
What did Bill Shakespeare say about them?
This is a very interesting observation.
I’m curious to see more than just the last few decades or so. A complete history from Washington to today would be a fascinating list to see.
I agree.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.) Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Benson, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.
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.
"First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
I'm a lawyer, and I agree wholeheartedly with this article, although not entirely with Bill Shakespeare's statement.
What an outstanding observation and article!!! I’m sending it to many. It really explains all the rhetoric and slickness (add BHO to Willie now) that we face. A continuing, formidable challenge.
“Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.)”
—
I know Sir Al couldn’t cut it at his first attempt, tried another and couldn’t make it there either, then tried Divinity school and couldn’t make it IIRC. Has Sir Al actually graduated from any college other than Chuck’s Mail In Divine Professy of Weather Seers, Inc?
I, too, am a lawyer, and I also agree with this article.
The “kill all the lawyers” line was spoken in the play by an insurrectionist wannabe tyrant. Which illustrates the point: for liberty to perish, the true law must be silenced. And today it is effectively being silenced by a cacauphony of false law.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004526/posts
Click through to the Boston Herald article. Fiat law.
(Gore didn't finish 'cause he would've flunked out - so he went off to Divinity College, where anyone should've been able to graduate - but he flunked out. He still dreams of ruling the world.)
This very stark difference between the dems and 'pubs has bothered me for years - in that no one seemed see the problem of having lawyers run the country.
What are lawyers trained to do? Parse the truth.
It's more than an occupational hazard. It's a prerequisite to getting a degree.
They are taught to shove the truth aside and do/say anything to win.
This saturation of lawyers needs to brought out for the voting public to see. It would wake a lot of people up.
It would make a great ad: flash the faces names in the article on the screen along with their profession. With "Lawyer" under every democrats name but not under one of the republicans, would shock a lot of people - and could sway a lot of votes. Lawyers aren't exactly the best loved, respected or trusted group of people =
Our SEARCH thingy ain’t workin’ tonight.
How about we only kill the ones that need killing. Is that better buddy?
“... if my Neighbour hath a Mind to my Cow,
he hires a Lawyer to prove that he ought to
have my Cow from me.”
( IV:5;13)
It is a Maxim among these Lawyers, that whatever
hath been done before, may legally be done again:
(IV:5;15)
Jonathan Swift
Excellent article and it points out what many and maybe even most are not aware of.
Thanks for the ping, George.
Them who need killing, lawyer or not, my friend.
DISCLAIMER: any discussion of hypothetical homicide is used strictly for analogical or philosophical purposes, and in no way presents an affirmative presentation of actual possibilities.
Copyright 2008.
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