Political Virtue - Cincinnatus

Today, we celebrate the 232nd celebration of American independence.

To commemorate such event, I shall cite the legacy of Lucius Quinctus Cincinnatus, a Roman stateman who, by surrendering the power he lawfully assumed as appointed Dictator of Rome merely sixteen days after his assumption of the supreme political office, became a symbol of political virtue in the ancient Roman Republic.

On the other hand, one of the main intentions of the founding fathers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution was the limiting of governmental powers among the equal branches of government found in the concept of Separation of Powers and System of Checks and Balances.

Indeed, political virtue to the American founders was not embodied in a single individual, serving and giving his best to the interest of the nation; on the contrary, it is in the effort of any individual serving the nation to commit to self-restraint when it comes to exercising, and extending derived power.

In short, STICK WITH TERM LIMITS. DO NOT THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE QUALIFIED. AND EVEN IF YOU ARE THE BEST, THE CONSTITUTION AND SOME LAWS MAY PROHIBIT SEEKING RE-ELECTION.

If you think you are the only one qualified, then you are full of yourself.

Democracy is not the rule of the best (that is aristocracy), it is the rule of the people.

And try imitating the one being described below.

Then perhaps you may know what truly being a stateman is.