The Transition

Pictured: Cass Sunstein & Samantha Power, married Obama appointees

It's time for the quadrennial transition, when the appointees of the outgoing administration are flushed from the corner offices of power and replaced by the sycophants of the new guy. Who are these people? Well, some of them are "careerist appointees", those who have done time with previous adminstations (Leon Panetta), failed incumbents (Tom Daschle), and power mad would-be kings (or queens, Hillary Clinton). Others are academicians whose ideas get an enthusiastic reception by the new guy and his disciples. Regardless of which of these or other categories the new appointees occupy, they almost all have one thing in common: they are attorneys.

And this is what the U.S. has become, a country that, for reasons that make no real sense, is run by and for the legal professional. This is actually the result of a plan that was advocated by no less the the man on the ten dollar bill, Alexander Hamilton. Historian Paul Johnson calls Hamilton's vision a "nomiocracy". And so it is.

For most of human existence, when a person got up in the morning, his primary concern for the rest of the day was to remain on convivial terms with the reigning deity and his local representative, the priest. This is the case even now across much of the world. The local superstition has complicated rules that govern every form of human behavior and social interaction. However, the secular society of America has taken a more modern tack. Rather than obey the commands of an invisible master and his corporeal agents, Americans have put themselves at the mercy of the graduates of legal diploma mills. These new priests make the rules by their presence in legislative bodies and interpret them in the courtrooms. They are involved in virtually every aspect of our existence and exact a tax on the same by their activity. No other country on earth attempts to support a similar group of drones.

Additionally, we supposedly are all wanting a national health care system. And why? Because a serious health issue can not only be expensive, it can bankrupt a family. Exactly the same is true of legal problems. Why not national legal insurance?