That's one of the ugly realities of being an attorney. On the criminal side attorneys sometimes represent the guilty and prosecute the innocent. On the civil side your client's choice of projects is not your own. Your client may wish to help elect an actor without a moral compass. Of course attorneys are free to turn down assignments they find repugnant. But well paid attorneys, like employees of the NSA and CIA, find a way to separate their amoral profession from their private lives - similar to the sort of person who made a good nazi or a Louis de Saint-Juste.
For obvious reasons I have never had any interest in being an attorney.
This is just a microcosm of the problems with a republican form of government. In Democracies, like Switzerland, laws and treaties are enacted by a vote of the people people. To sway the process you must convince a majority of the voters.
In a republic, like the U.S., a small number of representatives vote for the people. Their votes are influenced by their hazy perception of the people's will, but also by cash, friendships, promises of future prospects and many other factors which hardly lead to good government. In fact it's a blueprint for fraud and corruption. Not surprisingly, the majority of these representatives are attorneys.
Some people point out that a republic is more efficient than a democracy. Indeed a dictatorship is more efficient still. Democracies also tend to enact far fewer laws - but where is the harm in that?
I think Ronald Reagan is very typical of the sort of leader republics produce. Backed by a small group of businessmen with insensible ideas, he was sold to the public just like Proctor & Gamble sells soap.
He followed the same "economic program" as President that he did while Governor of California. Dramatically increase debt and government spending while claiming to cut government. Unfortunately the only part that was real was a dramatic increase in debt.
When Swiss voters make a mistake they don't have the option of "blaming it on the government". They can blame it on their neighbors, but that only gets you more involved in the process. In a republic, it is easy to blame things on "them". The government is seen as the cause of all ills, and this is very nearly correct. Our form of government is the cause of many ills. It operates exactly as designed. Republics are poor substitutes for democracy.
The Founding Father envisioned representative like themselves, who were public-spirited and intersted only in the good of the nation. They were replaced, almost immeadiately with the corrupt and the self-interested.
When Mrs Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
And such is our sorrow.
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