Yes, we have gotten change, the change of spin and rhetoric. But corporate greed and the arrogance of the nation’s top bankers continue unabated while our social fabric and economic system shreds. In contemporary America, justice, ethics, morality, compassion, fairness and humility have become little more than words in the dictionary.

Having endured eight years of the arrogant, cynical and inept Bush/Cheney regime Americans are now credulously being asked to accept as statesmanship the diddling of the Democrats and hyper-partisan circus Washington has become. Change indeed! Tweedle dee and tweddle dumber!

Today’s (15 January 2010) Lansing State Journal reported the President as saying the recent round of bank bonuses were “obscene.” And so they are.

But, Mr. President it was you and your fellow Democrats we elected to end the abuse and you haven’t. We’d hoped you might forge the bipartisan support you promised, but all we’ve seen is the withering of that promise. And now you sound like just another impotent citizen—off to the side decrying how unseemly it all has become.

As President and a Nobel Prize winner you speak eloquently of responsibility and compassion. As a savvy politician you are able to say nearly everything to everyone and commit to nothing! As an attorney, well schooled in Constitutional law, you cite the law with authority. And perhaps it is because you are a lawyer, like so many of your colleagues in the Congress and Senate, that this county is in the mess it is.

Of the 269 members of the current 111^th Congress, 204 list their occupations as lawyers! By comparison 6 are engineers, 16 are doctors, 1 is a veterinarian and 1 is a psychologist. There is even one comedian.

Lawyers are trained to be zealous advocates for their clients, their paying clients. They are taught that even the most dispicable criminal is entitled to the best legal representation he or she can afford. They are encouraged to frame and approach problems as arguments and contests. They are taught to use the law to argue and win for their client, albeit within the rules of law, regardless of whether the outcome is just and benefits the greater good. Once in politics the lawyer’s de facto clients become the big money donors who finance his or her campaigns.

It is this occupational mindset of confrontation, contest and the all-important win that the lawyers bring to the Congress, Senate and the Presidency.

What we have just seen in the recent health care debate (calling it that is being generous) is lawyers, in the guise of senators and congresspersons, championing the interest of their current de facto clients, the big businesses and special interest groups that financed their election. Only a few are trying to represent those people without influence—the average working person, the non-voting child, the elderly person living on a fixed income, the incarcerated, and the mentally ill.

I posit that it is the predominance of the lawyering mindset in government that severely compromises its ability to hear and address the real needs of the American people. One has to wonder if we had 204 doctors in this Congress, instead of 16, what kind of health care debate would have ensued and what kind of legislation would have resulted? What changes would occur if we had 204 teachers, or social workers, or farmers in the Congress?

I feel obligated to disclose that my “day job”, is with the State Bar of Michigan. However, I am not a lawyer. I am a communication designer. What I have written is my personal opinion, which as of this writing is still protected by the first amendment.

I must also acknowledge that there are many caring and well-meaning lawyers who do their utmost to serve the public good and achieve justice. However, in general, the legal profession has historically favored the status quo and the rich and powerful. Too often it has turned a blind eye to injustice. One need only recall that the Civil Rights Act did not pass until 1964, women did not win the right to vote until 1920, and that it took a Civil War to bring about the emancipation of the slaves.

© Michael Maurer Smith 2010