Mar 7, 2013 1 min read

Who doesn’t find the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C., exasperating? It’s no wonder that members of the U.S. Congress are held in such low esteem by the American public.

Many of our representatives and senators are lawyers, also, which only compounds their unpopularity. And most are career politicians. Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist and former speech writer for President Reagan, addressed an audience at Washington & Jefferson College Monday night and said she doesn’t think much of people who spend their entire lives laboring in politics: “What does that teach you to be but a jackass?”

It’s important to note, though, that frustration with the House and Senate is nothing new. In fact, it’s almost always been that way. John Adams, our second president, had this to say about it: “In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.”