It was right about now a year ago that Jim Webb stepped out of his Falls Church home into a bright spring morning and took up in earnest for the first time a citizen-candidate effort to change the course of the nation. His was in the time-honored American tradition of the ancient Roman Cincinnatus, who out of a sense of civic duty, when begged to do so, left a pastoral life as a farmer to assume the political and military leadership of his country. In the minds of the founding fathers of the U.S., the Cincinnatus model animated enthusiasm for the young nation’s new institutions. George Washington cited him when he was called out of private life, following his military career, to serve as the young republic’s first president. It was not the professional politician, but the virtuous citizen who was the key to making democracy work.
