Our culture is just a series of checks and balances. The whole idea that we're in a battle between tyranny and freedom - it's a series of pendulum swings.

Politics swings like a pendulum.

History has always been a series of pendulum swings, but the individual doesn't have to get caught in that.

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.

In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it's all checks and no balances.