Lindsey Graham's tearful Senate farewell marks the close of an era dominated by neoconservative insiders who traded constitutional restraint for endless foreign entanglements and bipartisan spending sprees. The tributes from both sides only confirm how far the institution drifted from its founding purpose, rewarding a career built on compromise rather than principle. This departure matters because it clears space for lawmakers who prioritize original constitutional limits over the administrative state's growth and perpetual global policing. The Founders designed a federal republic to secure individual liberty through divided powers, not to fund wars or agencies that erode those safeguards at home. Graham's record of backing expansive executive authority abroad repeatedly tested those boundaries. Senators who remember their oaths will reject such legacies and restore a government confined to its enumerated roles.