“No vice, therefore, is more foul than avarice….particularly among leading men and those who control public affairs. For to use public affairs for one’s profit is not only dishonourable, but criminal and wicked too….There is nothing by which those in charge of public affairs can more easily endear themselves to the goodwill of the masses than by incorruptible abstemiousness.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties II. 77. eds. and trans. M.T. Griffin and E.M. Atkins (Cambridge 1991), pp. 94-95.
I wonder if this is really true. Do voters really want someone honest and trustworthy?
