Most of my regularly-visited sites are by lawyers: Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy, No Oil For Pacifists, Althouse. One would think, then, that I would be much in favor of at least some lawyers running for office. To paraphrase Wally in the Dilbert strip “Those are other lawyers.” I think there is a different mindset among those who run for office. They want to use law to do things. Or something.
I might still write-in commenter Michael whenever there’s a local election where some jerk is running unopposed, but I think even that will be going away. He’s not that sort of lawyer, but maybe you become that way if you get elected. I wouldn’t want that on my conscience. My friend Chuck Douglas was a congressman, but he got out and stayed out.
This isn’t a completely Republican-Democrat thing, though the Democrats do have more lawyers in the Senate and tend to nominate them for president. More than tend, actually. It’s been everyone. But the Republicans did nominate Bob Dole, and before that…Richard Nixon.
I see the natural connection between writing legislation and studying law. So what? Non-lawyers can hire attorneys. Vote ABL – Anything but lawyers. I wish I’d thought of this months ago. Is Senator Gregg an attorney? That might create a conflict for me.
7 comments:
Judd Gregg practiced law in Nashua before running for office.
So, did you write me in for dog-catcher today?
I share your bias against action. Yet, I apply different reasoning to reach the same conclusion about lawyer-politicians. Washington lawyers--and that includes Senators and Congressmen that are lawyers--write little legislation. (In almost 30 years here, I wrote one definitional sub-section, and it was repealed years ago.) The real problem is that lawyers, by training, are better at tearing down as opposed to building up. Lawyers-politicians get elected by focusing on what they don't like--and then have no idea how to conceive, much less implement, an actual, positive agenda.
BTW, thanks for the link.
michael - didn't write you in. I don't want to ruin you.
carl - interesting insight about tearing down rather than building up.
Agreed on not voting for lawyers. I think the fact that both members of this year's Democratic ticket were lawyers, while both of the Republicans were not, was not trivial.
It's also the reason lawyers make good bloggers--and why I seek out (mostly in vain, as you well know) intelligent liberals to whom I can react and tear-down. . .uh, I mean debate.
Did you see MaxedOutMama's take (in a comment on a global warming post):
"[E]ngineers are trained to sit down and figure out how something works before busting it. Lawyers are trained to bust things efficiently for a high tab. There is a fundamental difference in world views...."
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