This lingering in the limelight isn’t good for former presidents, and it robs us of everything they might still contribute. If they want to retire, fine. But if they want to do something, let’s give them something real to do.

What should that “something” be? History provides a number of options. Grover Cleveland played the stock market. James Madison helped revise the Virginia state constitution and served as president of the American Colonization Society, which helped former slaves settle in Liberia. John Adams, like Washington before him, returned to his farm.

The more vigorous former commanders-in-chief could imitate Theodore Roosevelt, who — after failing to win a third term — undertook a grueling expedition to the South American jungle.

Those who aren’t quite done with public life are also in good company. In the first century of the republic, three former presidents were elected to public office. One-term president John Quincy Adams won nine terms in the House of Representatives. Six years after leaving the Oval Office, Andrew Johnson was elected as a senator from Tennessee, though he died a few months after taking office. John Tyler’s neighbors — all Whigs who considered his presidency a disaster — mockingly elected the former president as the local overseer of roads, a position he took up with the utmost seriousness. Tyler also served briefly in the Confederate Congress.