The manner in which most elective positions in the United States are structured is geared to allow competent, politically interested individuals to step forward and serve as representatives of the people. In fact, more than two centuries ago, the founders worked to create a national legislature that allowed successful citizens to serve their nation for a few years. The notion of career politicians was not something they envisioned; it was something against which they warned. Weary of the power of hereditary succession and monarchical rule, for instance, Thomas Paine (1776) highlighted the ills of a ruling class:

Alexander Hamilton (1787) also argued against career politicians, noting that “the natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.” During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin (1787) took the sentiment even further when he asserted that professional politicians were confined to an undesirable “state of servitude”:

Since the time of the founding, therefore, the U.S. political system's success has relied on a large number of civic-minded citizen legislators.