As Quaestor, as AEdile, and as Praetor, he did not interfere in the political questions of Rome, except in demanding justice from judges and purity from governors.

When he became Consul then he became a politician, and after that there was certainly no vacillation in his views.

Critics say that he surrendered himself to Caesar when Caesar became master.

We shall come to that hereafter; but the accusation with which I am dealing now is that which charges him with having abandoned the democratic memories of his youth as soon as he had enveloped himself with the consular purple.

There had been no democratic promises, and there was no change when he became Consul.
In truth, Cicero's political convictions were the same from the beginning to the end of his career, with a consistency which is by no means usual in politicians; for though, before his Consulship, he had not taken up politics as a business he had entertained certain political views, as do all men who live in public.