On the Cursus Honorum and its Place in American Politics
How young is too young to become mayor of a major city?
The recent New York City mayoral elections have raised concerns about “experience in office” that have rarely been raised before. The sorest of losers in the Cuomo campaign spent about a week raising the alarm over Zohran Mamdani’s age in particular as a concern as their perverted boss mulled over the decision to stay in the race despite losing. I don’t like to involve myself in politics too heavily on this blog, but my objections to Andrew Cuomo’s candidacy far surpass his corruption. He’s an unrepentant pervert whose return to public office risks undermining all the social good that the #MeToo movement did to punish celebrities whom the law cannot touch. It is rare that I find myself in a position to help victims of sexual assault through my writing given the nature of this blog, but if I can help to delegitimize the strongest argument that the pervert’s campaign thinks it has against the frontrunner, then I’ll take pride when he loses again in November.
The United States has no formal cursus honorum. The closest thing that reflects it are the age requirements to run for the House (25), the Senate (30), and Presidency (35). Otherwise, the restrictions for local office are left up to the states under the provisions of the 10th amendment. The country does, generally speaking, expect that their officials undertake some sort of leadership position before they ascend to the presidency; of the five that did not hold elected office, three led military posts in active wars, Hoover participated in negotiations at Versailles as Secretary of Commerce, and the last, Donald Trump, has run many business ventures. Given that the current holder of the highest office in the land has had no prior political experience other than his first time in office, this is not a strong argument to make in the social climate. On the other hand, Mamdani does have three years of experience as a city council member. The structure of the Roman Republic did not have comparable offices to state- or city-wide government, but the first position that came with imperium (the aedileship) could be granted to those with as little as three years of political experience, matching Mamdani’s. The responsibilities of the office of the Aedile could be compared and contrasted with the responsibilities of a mayor; both positions have stronger social roles concerning the culture of their respective times rather than legislative matters, but such discussions inevitably devolve into quibbling. The important thing to recognize is that they bore imperium. Someone with three years of political experience was deemed responsible enough to attend with lictors carrying the fasces. We as a country like to tell ourselves that elected officials are “public servants” when those in charge begin to act too big for their britches, but the letter of the law says that employees of the state from governors to cops to the ticket inspector on the train are entitled to greater protections than the average civilian. This, similarly, is true of any position with imperium. Bearing the fasces in Rome was symbolic of one’s power over the rest of the citizenry. To act against them was in effect to act against the people of Rome as a whole.
By my count, the three years of a member of the city council would only make Zohran Mamdani the third or fourth least “experienced” mayor of NYC in the last century, depending on whether one is willing to include the tail end of John Hylan’s career. One of the more prominent names on that list is Michael Bloomberg, who maintained power for over a decade besides. This is because it’s not really Mamdani’s experience that these people object to, it’s his age. Alexander the Great conquered Greece, Persia, and Egypt and died at the age of 32. Jesus Christ, the corporeal manifestation of the Abrahamic God, lived in order to experience all of humanity’s suffering for himself, and considered his job complete at the age of 33. If elected, Zohran Mamdani would be 34 when he enters office. I’m very much in agreement that the “ship of state” argument needs to come up more often in regards to some of the bums that our states have elected, but it has been over-applied to dissuade apt candidates who, a century ago, nobody would have batted an eye at for running. Consider the ages of even the founding fathers of this country. Would Andrew Cuomo tell Thomas Jefferson that 33 was too young to write the Declaration of Independence, or that Alexander Hamilton was too young to discourse against it, and eventually become the first secretary of the treasury at 34? No, despite the media’s supposed distaste for his actions, he won’t receive any pushback for this talking point. God forbid they ask him how old the upper limit for the office ought to be, considering he would leave office in his 70s.
Generally speaking, the maxim “wisdom comes with age” holds true. Unfortunately, some people flee from any opportunity to gain wisdom in order to further their career through vice. In my mind, Andrew Cuomo best represents this caste of wicked elders because he’s groping women like a handsy teenager despite his age. It is in all cases better to give a young person the opportunity to continue to prove their virtue in office than to fall back on an old pervert who has proven to have none. Don’t just take this case as an isolated incident, either: the U.S. has devolved into a gerontocracy because myriad baby boomers have refused to give up power in due course. “Inexperience” isn’t a synonym for incompetence; take a chance on a primary challenger in the next election, because something has to change.