Bryan Callen and Hunter Maats speaking with James Rollins about abuses of power

Bryan: As I get older I become way more cynical about the fact that, it seems to me, that anybody in power is going to exercise that power.  It's a human compulsion.  It doesn't mean that people at the IRS are bad people or Politicians are all bad people.  It just means that when you have a system, an incentive structure in place, it's going to be [a]bused. 

Hunter: Well it goes back to what James Madison said, right?  - Which is that, you know, you have Governments because people can't be trusted but the problem is you have to people Governments with people, who can't be trusted.  Right?  And so the only solution is to set ambition against ambition. You just have, you know, the people compete with the Government, the Government competes with itself.

Bryan: Special interests compete with Special Interests. 

Hunter: That's right.  And that's the thing, but I think the Special Interests is an interesting one, and you and I have talked about this. - Which is that, you know, the Special Interests are all competing for control of the Government but the problem is, is that what happens when Special Interests compete is not necessarily what's right for the Country.  Right? And so I think that's the thing you know, the reason why the Constitution was, you know, agonized over and crafted so delicately is because it's like a game of Football or a game of Basketball, you need to get the rules  exactly right so that the competition is maximized, and is constructive competition.

Bryan: Right. Well James, you write about threats.  You're always seeing threats out there, it's the fodder for your books.  I'm sure you think about this stuff.

James: Yup. Everything we just talked about is pretty much what i'm working on right now.  It's a major component of the Book i'm writing right now.

Bryan: Really?  Oh wow.

James: [It] deals specifically with that.  Which is the incremental creep of ... giving up Freedom for the sake of Security.

Episode #51 of The Bryan Callen Show podcast @ - 19:08