Which of course could be reframed as their dedication to upholding a privileged oligarchy. The Optimates were very wealthy, and they wanted the older forms of the Republic maintained because those forms concentrated power in the hands of the wealthy elite.

It's funny (at least to me) how their struggle to maintain power has so often been framed as a struggle for democracy or representative government.

Really, nobody was fighting for noble principles (except maybe Cato the Younger in his stubborn but enemy-making manner), not even the Populares faction, though they did court the common people with promises of reform that could benefit them.

Ironically, the common people seemed happiest when Augustus finally subverted the Republic by maintaining its forms while ruling as an autocrat. He gave the people what they'd always wanted: peace and prosperity free from the machinations of the wealthy elite of both factions.