Harley at the U-Haul store in Omaha installed the hitch on my Camry so I could tow a trailer back to Florida. He explained a couple of things about the installation, then apologized that he had scratched the hitch in the process of installation. I told him no problem, it’s a tow bar bolted under the frame to pull a trailer. He said some people would have been upset, and honesty is the best policy.
Harley is what’s right about America, and I was rather hoping he would run for the Senate, but with an attitude that honesty is the best policy, I doubt he would have much of a chance of being elected.
I had a bit of a come-uppance from a good friend of mine, a man who also served in the Peace Corps in Belize, as he emailed me about my last two blogs. He made some great points about how my vision is somewhat clouded, as I haven’t been back in country for long. Things here are not as good as they seem, he said. There are problems that aren’t apparent in the new roads I’ve been driving on and the parking lots full of shoppers in the malls that I pass.
There is truth in what he said, I know that. But then I ran into Harley, and I had to rethink what I was rethinking. Because the US is full of Harleys. His tools are good tools but well used; they are neatly organized in a rolling metal tool box so he doesn’t have to sort through piles of sockets to find the right one. He works quickly and efficiently and knows exactly what he is doing and why. There’s no one looking over his shoulder to tell him what or how or why, and it’s unlikely I would have ever even seen the scratch on my hitch, and yet he came to me to tell me, knowing I could have been irate.
If we could get Harley into Congress, things would get crazy in a hurry, I also know that. The powers that be would chew him up and spit him out like a hamburger on a plate of caviar on the hors d’oeuvre plate at a state dinner. As I write that, I know it’s an opinion, but I doubt many would disagree and it’s not because Harley is unintelligent. It’s because Harley, in my brief encounter with him, appears to be a straightforward problem solver with a strong propensity to tell the truth. Congress, as it has evolved, has little use for those particular qualities. Now, why is that?
Every person who arrives in Washington brings baggage of various sizes and weight, most of which would not fit the carryon limitations of the major airlines. But they fly it in, compressed into their life and work experiences. Congress is shaped by those experiences, and especially by shared experiences and training.
About half the members of the 111 Congress, serving from 2009 – 2010, were lawyers. Forty-six percent to be exact. One hundred sixty-eight Representatives, 57 Senators.
Lawyers are not trained to tell the truth. They are trained to be advocates for their clients, and that is a good thing if you need an advocate. They highlight those truths that aid their case, and suppress those truths that might work against their case. For those of us outside the profession, sometimes it is very hard to discern that difference, and in Congress that training does not lend itself to transparency and problem solving.
Thomas Jefferson said, "If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?”
That is the Congress We the People have elected. Almost half the members are part of the same club. And it is true that just by virtue of their profession they tend to be people interested in the political process, so it’s probably a natural progression for lawyers to gravitate towards politics.
But how good is it for the country that one profession dominates our political process? They are going to have a bias towards the law and their own profession. To doubt that is to disregard the hundreds of thousands of laws we have on our books and the litigiousness of our society. Without being too cynical, who does that most benefit? Lawyers. What if half of the people in Congress were educators? Would it be a stretch to think that education might be more of a priority? Or if half were farmers, is it possible that rural legislation might take a front seat?
James Madison wrote in Federalist 47, “No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty than that . . . the accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Maybe it’s time for We the People to elect some diversity into our political process.
Well, I told ya that Congress has been a wee bit bellicose whilst you were away. I, for one, fully support a Harley/German or German-Harley ticket for 2012 (or even 2014.). Such a lovely ring to it, eh?
Posted by: Fort | November 21, 2011 at 01:57 PM
Rog - My Vote has been since 07 - kick them all to the curb. The more I read about the group the more it turned my stomach. Your U-haul buddy gets my vote - So net-net - please run and we will go door to door 4 U. U may have to move to the center a little more - but we can talk about details later.
: )
Posted by: Jim Echternacht | November 21, 2011 at 05:30 PM
Harley's are wonderful but I vote for former baseball, football, basketball players and coaches for Congress that know the value of T*E*A*M...working together for the good of the whole, looking for solutions, not antagonism, putting 'self' aside (no 'I' in team), certainly no political parties on a team!)
Crazy, but I think I just hit a grand slam!!
Posted by: thodson | November 21, 2011 at 07:41 PM
Not so crazy, Miss T, you are the team captain says I. Such a simple concepts as you 3 state here elude our highest level of government leaders. We the people have so much to offer, if only our words could be found by hearing ears....
Posted by: Fey | November 22, 2011 at 07:18 PM