The Cincinnatus Paradox
Victory goes to those who show up.
The story of Cincinnatus is one of a legendary figure who came to the rescue of the Roman Empire.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman consul from a legendary period of Roman history, gaining fame for his selfless devotion to the republic in a time of dire crisis and for giving up the seat of power when the crisis was over. He was a farmer above all, but when called to serve his country as dictator to save it, he did so without question even while knowing a prolonged stay away from his farm could mean starvation for his family. He performed so valiantly and well; the people of Rome begged him to continue as dictator – and something he refused.
Cincinnatus became the model of Roman virtue - particularly of civic virtue - by the time of the late Republic. His story is one America’s founders had in mind as they crafted a government designed to be part-time and one consisting of people who are citizens first and legislators second.
George Washington was lauded as such a figure, answering a call to service in the fight for a new nation, serving as its first chief executive, and then returning to Mount Vernon after his time to serve was completed.
The result of the state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin is just the latest illustration of how the Republicans are caught in the Cincinnatus paradox, the paradox of believing politics is a part-time endeavor in a world where politics is pervasive, perpetual and permanent.
Rather than returning to their farms after the last election, Republicans just sat back and didn’t vote. Scott Pressler, a successful force in GOP GOTV efforts in 2024 - possibly the greatest factor in turning out Republican voters in the key swing states (Trump won them all) - someone who has set his sights on turning several blue states red in 2026 and 2028 (and primarying quisling Republicans as well) warned several weeks ago about Republican apathy and disengagement after delivering historic wins in those swing states, one of which was Wisconsin.
Politics no longer takes a pause – for anything. As a matter of fact, the effort is constant to turn everything into a political advantage or disadvantage.
While the citizen-legislator is still an ideal, the practice of politics has changed from a limited affair, generally following the agrarian crop cycle, to one that rages all day, every day of every year. Serving in government has become a full-time endeavor, a lifetime career for many. In the current Congress, we have one member who has served over 50 years (Chuck Grassley), nine who have served over 40 to 49 years, sixteen who have served 30 to 39 years and sixty who have served 20 to 29 years.
Woody Allen, the famous actor/director, famously said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up” – and that is especially true when it comes to elections.
I know it is tiring, but this is the way of things today and will remain so unless and until government is pared down to be a less important part of our daily lives – but it is difficult to contemplate that endpoint when the very people who claim to want to pursue that goal sit on the sidelines while the opposition doesn’t.
And to be sure, the American left does not sit on the sidelines. Real or imagined, they always seem to find some “threat to democracy” that motivates their voters. They have turned Elon Musk, once a darling of the left, into a vicious and voracious beast of a billionaire, reminiscent of how the Nazis propagandized Jews into blood-drinking ghouls preying on Aryan babies.
While Cincinnatus may represent the ideal of public service, the Cincinnatus models of the future will never exist unless they can be elected in the first place.
Republicans must get off the sidelines everywhere and for every election.
This is the way.
Attempts to “Cincinnatize” our Republic, especially by imposing term limits on members of the House and Senste face one formidable reality that did not exist at the time of our Founding: the existence of both a standing army and an massive administrative state. You have all heard of the “Iron Triangle,” the triad of Defense Department, defense contractors and their lobbies and the Congressional oversight committees that provide a popular electoral check on the preceding two unelected sides of the triangle. The only way the Congressional side is able to see through the suave talking and institutional memory of the other two is through experience in serving in the oversight function. Artificially limiting that ability to gain and pass down that experience by term limits: just as doin as the learning curve is starting to drop you are out of office. However I have never understood the supposed Republican logic in artificially limiting the voters’ choices. If your Representative/Senator is doing what their constituents consider to be a good job shouldn’t they have the option of retaining them in their office? Term limits already exist: if you are dissatisfied with your Representative or Senator you can turn them out during your primaries. But absolute term limits will only empower the Deep State further. Do you really want that?