A little over 2,500 years ago, there lived a man named Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. If his name seems familiar, that’s because one of the United States’ great cities is named after him. Cincinnatus had served the Roman Republic in several capacities, including Consul of the Senate of Rome. But in 458 BC, the Roman Army was struggling to defeat the Aequi, an Italic tribe to the east of the city of Rome.

Cincinnatus had retired to a farm, but when Rome called, he answered. He was appointed Dictator by the Roman Senate, giving him absolute power over the city – and the army. He oversaw a quick victory over the Aequi; the Roman historian Livy puts the time at sixteen days.  With that done, Cincinnatus surrendered the dictatorship and went back to his farm.

Livy and other Roman scribes of the time held Cincinnatus up as a model of civic virtue, an example for any who would serve the republic. I will not question their wisdom at this distance in time. I will note that the next time something like that happened was in the United States, when America’s first president, George Washington, left the presidency in March of 1797 and quietly returned to his farm, leaving John Adams in office.

We have no Cincinnatus among us today.

Earlier on Friday, my colleague Teri Christophe revealed to us a tale of corruption, of political malfeasance, maybe even treason, that one would think more Roman than American. But here we are. Teri writes:

A clearly-irate Gabbard took to X Friday afternoon to detail what was found in the documents—i.e., Obama & co. made the whole thing up—and what she plans to do with the information.

🧵 Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President @realDonaldTrump, subverting the… pic.twitter.com/UQKKZ5c4Op

— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) July 18, 2025

If you haven’t yet read Teri’s account of this disaster, do so. Make sure you’re sitting down, and I’d recommend a good stiff belt at your elbow; you’re going to need it.

Rome had its share of great statesmen – not just Cincinnatus but Cicero, Cato the Younger, and others. The United States has had great presidents, from Washington to Calvin Coolidge to Ronald Reagan, and yes, to Donald Trump. But the Roman Republic, in its later years, was mired in political corruption. The common people – the plebs – saw their jobs given to slaves, usually important from outside Rome, who cost their employers much less. (Sound familiar?) The political classes grew steadily richer and richer while in office, from side dealing, from outright conquest, and so on. (Sound familiar?) The culture grew ever more degraded, with public orgies and drug abuse. (Sound familiar?) Elections were not trustworthy, with established officeholders often running against fake candidates – straw men – and rigging the counts. (Sound familiar?)

The outright criminal behavior by the Obama administration in 2016 is sadly familiar to anyone who has read accounts of the dying days of the Roman Republic. Barack Obama’s administration saw a man win the presidency who they assumed (rightly, as it happens) would be a bull in a china shop, and they bent every effort to delegitimize him before and after he took office. It didn’t matter if they had any evidence. It didn’t matter if they had to lie. It didn’t matter what they had to do; they would do it to ensure that the Democratic Party and the Deep State’s grip on power was unchecked. 

It doesn’t matter which party is involved in this, on which side; these behaviors aren’t what we, as Americans, should expect. Yet, here we are.

Indeed, it’s not just corruption around elections and post-election scandalizing that is rampant in Washington today: