More Presidential Party Thoughts

[Guest Grizzly Johnson]

This is very interesting, read it on another board and thought I would pass along! I never thought about it this way. Perhaps this is why so many physicians are conservatives or republicans.

Thoughtful point of view

The Democrat 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 Bentsen, 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 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. 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 use sparse 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 politi cs 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.

[DavidD]

Wow, I never knew. Makes sense though! Great piece.

[Guest Verbal Kint]

Good read. Thanks.

[memphismason]

Very interesting article.

Thanks for sharing

[Guest JavaGuy]

Personally, I prefer simple to complex; however this simplistic piece railing against Democrats and lawyers is just too simple for me. I guess it's because I try to look at things from both sides and make up my own mind... grin.. i.e. I don't follow blindly behind either party's mouthpieces.

That said.. I took a look at this on a state level by checking the occupations listed on the bio pages of our state Senators and putting them into five broad categories. Two senators really didn't have anything listed as an occupation. Some are retired, but I used their previous occupation as the basis for sticking them into a category. Several listed more than one thing...

Here are the results.

-------------Republican---Democrat---Independent

Attorney --------4------------6----------0

Business --------9------------6----------1

Medical ---------4------------1----------0

Teaching --------0------------2----------0

Farmer ----------1------------2----------0

I could be wrong, but I doubt that "farming" in these cases extends beyond owning the farm. In the category of Attorney, it could be argued that some of these are probably self-employed or own the law firm, thereby possibly lumping them over into the Business category as well. Some of the Business entries are insurance agents and the like.

My whole point is that articles like this which seem to have the purpose of demonizing the other side, whether it's folks of a liberal point of view demonizing the conservatives or conservatives demonizing the liberals.. well, I think it's dumb with a capital D. Yep, to me it's akin to hyphenating yourself as an African-American, an Irish-American, a Hispanic-American or whatever type dash-American you think you are. Truthfully, most of us (yes, admittedly, not all) have more things in common than we have that separate us. Unfortunately, some folks try to manipulate the differences and split Americans apart for their own purposes. i.e. gun nuts... Yeah, let's treat everyone with a gun as a gun nut. And sure, there are some who fit that description so well that their picture ought to be in the dictionary beside gun nut. Same thing for wing nut and moon bat.

Oh well.. that's my opinion.. that I don't like all the labelling and stereotyping. Yep, my opinion and ten bucks will get you lunch at Hooters.

Edited July 22, 2008 by JavaGuy
Adding a poor man's table...

[Guest Len]

"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."

Gimme a break. So much wrong with those two sentences that I can't even begin to scratch the surface.

[Guest JavaGuy]

"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."

Gimme a break. So much wrong with those two sentences that I can't even begin to scratch the surface.

And to think, I wrote a whole lot more.. and didn't say nearly as much. Neatly and nicely stated sir.