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1. Anonymoose says:

   September 9, 2012 at 8:57 pm

   That’s the point, though — if you took any other path through life than utilizing boundless family wealth through ivy leagues, doing more than networking with judicial and business powerhouses, you’d never get anywhere in politics.

   Research, scholarship, and actual work prevent you from shaking hands and talking business and making connections and developing social / public skills.

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2. guest says:

   September 9, 2012 at 9:17 pm

   But isn’t the main job of congress and the senate to create laws? Complaining that the body in charge of creating laws has too many lawyers and not enough scientists is like complaining that the body in charge of testing automotive reliability in case of a crash has too many engineers and not enough philosophers in it.

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   • Jeros says:

     September 9, 2012 at 9:45 pm

     That analogy would hold true if Automotive safety engineers held power over the philosopher’s trade. They do not, however. Congress holds power over all interstate commerce, and therefore either directly or indirectly have power over all other professions.

     Depending on your own philosophy that either means that those professions deserve a voice in the body that writes their future, or the ruling class can just do as it wishes. I’m oversimplifying of course, but so is your analogy.

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   • Jeros says:

     September 9, 2012 at 9:46 pm

     I will give you this though, it’s not Congress or the constitution or anyone else’s fault that other professions are not represented, by the way. The blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of those other professions.

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3. no says:

   September 9, 2012 at 10:21 pm

   Where is the rest of life?

   Lobbying.

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4. MalcoveMagnesia says:

   September 9, 2012 at 10:44 pm

   The founding fathers originally wanted people from all walks of life to be a part of Congress. And Congress was only a part time thing, so the burden of being away from the farm or whatever their real job wouldn’t be too great.

   Now, unfortunately, that’s been completely forgotten about in the hundreds of years since the U.S. was created.

   Where I live in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi has been our rep for almost 20 years. She has such a lock on the job, or so she feels, that she doesn’t campaign in San Francisco at all. Back in my home state of Michigan, John Dingell has been in office for 56 years. Another Detroit-area representative bragged she’d be in Congress “until I decide to retire”. Thankfully the (usually moronic) voters decided to retire her anyways.

   I think the best solution for the short term would be to institute “term limits” on all members of the government. 8 years in one particular office and they’d have to move on to something else.

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   • Caio says:

     February 19, 2013 at 6:41 am

     People from all walks of life except for black people, women, and people who didn’t own land.

     But other than that all walks of life.

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