To: C Kahn who wrote (1020 ) 8/15/1999 7:49:00 AM From: nuke44 Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Historically, in times of national emergency, we have drafted men into our military. I think we have already passed the point of national emergency when it comes to our elected officials so why not purge the House, Senate, and Executive Branch and draft a pool of qualified candidates for consideration for office. They should meet the prerequisites as far as age and citizenship, but outside of that they should be just normal citizens. I realize that law does not prohibit felons from serving in most elected positions, it just prohibits them from voting (rightfully so), but if we can make non-felon status a prerequisite for our military, we should hold the same level of qualifications in our elected officials. One other qualification might be to ban attorney's from elected positions. If you were to walk into Washington right now and evict all of the attorney's, there wouldn't be enough people left to form a softball team. We could draft attorney's to take care of the convoluted legalisms and wording of legislation, say at the salary or a new recruit in the military, but we should at no time allow them a hand in drafting or enacting legislation into law. I believe Ambrose Bierce had it right when he defined Lawyer as "Someone skilled in the circumvention of the law", and our current government, starting with the president and his "better" half are vivid proof of that.
