I think it’s helpful to understand the mindset of the largely property-owning men who founded our Republic. They believed public service was an obligation of their class. They believed men who had the means to participate in government were morally obliged to do so. George Washington’s Society of Cincinnati idealized a Roman Republican celebrated for leaving his farm and serving in high office during a time of crisis. And then going back to his farm when the need was over.

I think Washington saw himself in Cincinnatus.

As far as contemporary Republicans go, how very odd it is that the party that so stridently defended compulsory military service as a defense of the common good, now decries obligatory mask-wearing during a public health crisis as unacceptable loss of freedom.

Are they even listening to themselves? Do their incoherency and dissonance matter to them? I suspect not. In an age where marketing is everything, and staying on message is all that matters, consistency seems to fly out the window.