California billionaire and environmental hypocrite Tom Steyer pumped a whopping $74 million into Democrat campaigns and outside liberal organizations during the 2014 election cycle. Steyer failed to get Democrats elected in key races across the nation—including Washington State—despite his efforts. Yet, Steyer’s pricey setback has not done much to deter him from the political arena.
Recent rumors indicate that Steyer is thinking about entering the race to replace California Senator Barbara Boxer after she retires in 2016. Steyer added fuel to the rumor [figuratively speaking, of course] when he commissioned a poll to vet his chances. Steyer’s poll found that the environmental hypocrite would be a “strong contender to win” due to the importance Californians place on climate change issues.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the poll was not the conclusion itself, but how Steyer received the result—a testimony of Steyer’s high opinion of himself. The poll’s results were sent to Steyer and his team in a memo addressed to “Team Cincinnatus.” Ironically, the alias Steyer appears to have adopted refers to a Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the humble farmer turned Roman statesman immortalized for his leadership and selfless virtues after “twice being chosen for, and then twice resigning, the mantle of dictator in order to protect the republic.”
The historical figure most commonly compared to Cincinnatus, even by his contemporaries, is none other than George Washington. After visiting him at Mount Vernon in 1788, French traveller Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville wrote that the comparison of Washington to Cincinnatus is “doubtless just.” Somehow, we doubt anyone but his most crazed supporters–or maybe the ones he pays off with the billions he made of his fossil fuel investments–would say the same of Steyer.
