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As I record this, it's only four days before election day here in the United States.

So first, if you are registered and able to vote, go do it.

This year's contest is likely to be another very close election, so your voice matters.

Second, regardless of your politics or party affiliation, there are some things we can all agree on. One of them is that when selecting politicians, we all want individuals who can best represent

our interests and not their own, so that, as Abraham

Lincoln put it, government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from

the earth. The goal has never been government of the elite or government by the minority,

and certainly not government for a single person.

But when an individual can hold so much power as our president does,

how can we assure that it's our interests that are being pursued?

One defense against tyranny, autocracy, and kleptocracy is to uphold the rule of law

and maintain the checks and balances built into our

Constitution. But a more proactive measure is probably to select presidents that can and are likely

to put country over self. Because they exist. And that's what we're exploring on today's Saturday

matinee with an episode from the podcast, Country Over Self.

As an example, our fourth president, James Madison, set aside his own long-held and fiercely

argued belief in the unconstitutionality of the Bank of the United States and then extended

the bank's charter because it worked, and he saw that it did.

...