The Stack: Human Nature, Power, and the Limits of Government
Why did America’s Founders insist on limiting government power instead of trusting leaders to do the right thing? The answer begins with a clear-eyed understanding of human nature.
In today’s Toddcast, Todd continues his foundational series on the principles behind conservative thought. After discussing truth and power in earlier conversations, the focus now shifts to a critical question: who should hold power—and how much of it should they have?
Todd explains that history and the Bible both reveal the same truth: human beings are capable of great good but also great evil. Because power amplifies human flaws, any political system that assumes leaders will always act virtuously is destined to fail.
The American founders understood this reality. Rather than designing a government that relies on perfect leaders, they created a constitutional system built on checks, balances, and limits. The goal wasn’t to trust power—but to restrain it.
Understanding human nature isn’t pessimistic. It’s the very foundation of protecting freedom.
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📝 Transcript: Human Nature, Power, and the Limits of Government
The Todd Huff Show – March 13 , 2026
Host: Todd Huff
Todd Huff: Well, my friends, I hope you've enjoyed having these conversations these past few days as much as I have. I thoroughly enjoy this. I think that this is critically important. Allows us to talk about the ideas behind why we believe what we believe. The way that this nation was founded, why that matters? And again, the reason here is because everybody has an opinion on politics, which is fine. Everybody should have an opinion. Although I think maybe some people should realize. Look, I don't know enough about it to form an opinion. But there's nothing where free people. You can think what you want. What we've got to get better at doing is giving people explanations and frameworks through which to view events.
Todd Huff: Now, I know in a lot of cases we'll be barking up the proverbial wrong tree here. However. However. Just think, my friends. Just think. If we were all able to persuade just one more person. Think about that. If we were all able to persuade one more person. What if every person who voted for Trump. Persuaded one more person to vote Republican. I mean, that is at some point a statistically not possible. But the point is, what if 10% of, say, Trump's voters, roughly 75 million or whatever it was. What if 10% of them converted or persuaded two or three people or five people? You can see that you can really move the needle quickly, my friends. So that's why these things matter. That's why they matter a lot.
Todd Huff: And I've enjoyed talking about them, in fact. This may surprise you. This may surprise you, but I don't enjoy talking about politics. Now, I love talking about the issues. I love talking about the why. I love talking about the ideas that are behind these things, the worldview. But when it's just the politics, the things happening behind the scenes, I just. That's not my thing. It just isn't. I want to talk about the ideas. I hope you recognize that. And I hope you enjoy that, too.
Todd Huff: So, that being said, This is our third day of kind of going through this. And the first two days we've spoken about power. And, well, we spoke about truth the first day. We spoke about power yesterday. And now we're going to deal with the next question in this kind of linear thought process here, who should hold power and how much of it should they have? That's where we're headed today. And a lot of pieces to that puzzle. Along the way that we'll put together as well, my friends.
Todd Huff: And by the way, let me say this, this is going to be part of a multi series. I don't know how long we're going to do these. I've got it outlined. A ways out. But I reserve the right to. Stop and talk about anything that's happened. Along the way and say, today we're going to talk about this issue. I reserve the right to do that. When I was a kid. When I was a kid, this is the truth. My father who's a character. My mom used to make. When my brother and I were in high school, she would make Rice Krispie treats.
Todd Huff: Apparently, back in the day, we loved these. I don't remember liking them as much as I don't really care for them now, but we must have. And we must have eaten those babies pretty quick. And when dad knew mom was making Rice Krispie. This is the true story. This makes me blush and chuckle a little bit, but this is my father being my father. When a new mom was making the Rice Krispie treats, my dad would announce to the family. And it was just the four of us, my mom and dad, brother and I. My dad would announce to the group. I reserve one row.
Todd Huff: I'm not sure how often he got. He got that one row. And of course, the pan was longer one way than it was another way. So my brother and I probably found a way to give him the smallest amount of real estate possible. For his Rice Krispie treats. But I reserve my friends one row. I reserve the right to pause this series on whatever happens. In the news narrative. And that's what we will talk about if and when the time comes, which I'm sure that it will.
Todd Huff: I just don't know how long I plan on doing this. I think that this is of all the things that we talk about. I like to use, and I think this is what I learned from Rush. You use the issues of the day as a springboard. To talk about the deeper underlying reasons and the thinking and the why. And we do that. But if you're only getting into the issues that come up, just. I don't want to say my happen, Chance, because a lot of this is orchestrated. But to some degree happen. Chance, you never have a formula. And so I'm trying to systematically lay the groundwork for why we are conservative, why we should think about things a certain way, why we should use this particular prism.
Todd Huff: Through which to view the issues of the day. So that's where we're headed. I appreciate you joining us, my friends. Thank you so much. For being here. You've worked hard. You've made smart choices. Now it's about making sure that the effort counts, not just today, but for the future.
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Todd Huff: Okay? So we've talked about truth, we've talked about power. Now we're going to talk about the question that then says, who should hold that power and how much should they have? Now human beings are capable of good. I think that this is obvious. People can do good things, but people, human beings are capable of corruption. People are capable of evil, in fact. The Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've turned away from his standard and we've pursued our own selfish interests, the things that we want. To heck with everything else.
Todd Huff: And we've set our sights there, and we've all, every last one of us, have done things that we should not have done. We are capable. Humanity is capable of untold evil. You look back again, just look back at the 20th century alone, and you will find unfathomable amounts of evil. Inflicted on humanity. You look at, of course, the obvious example is the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler. But you can look at the Gulags under Stalin in Soviet Russia, the killing fields. With Pol Pot, Mao and his reign in China, the list goes on. And on and on.
Todd Huff: My friends, you can go back through history and look at people like Genghis Khan. You can look at the invention of types of execution that I don't even want to talk about on here, crucifixion being one of them. Impaling people. There were people whose job it was to make death as prolonged and as painful as possible. It wasn't enough for these people just to say someone is not worthy of someone can't be trusted. They violated the trust bond by being too violent. And so we're going to end their life swiftly. They wanted them to suffer. For days.
Todd Huff: I mean, some of these. I'm having images of some of these things that I know about that candidly, I wish I didn't know about. Humanity is evil. Humanity is full of pride. Humanity is selfish. Humanity has a desire for control. Now that's too modest. Controls is not necessarily a bad thing. For the Christian. We should submit to God's authority. But there are things that we should, quote, unquote, take control over responsibility for. In our lives.
Todd Huff: But too often, too often, we use that desire for control to force things to be the way that we want again. To heck with what everybody else thinks. And because human nature, this is the question. How do you view human nature? Because the way that you view human nature is going to determine, in part, the way you see politics. And I would say for those of us who understand what I just said, and some people are shaking their head no to that, which is wild to me. I don't know how much history you have to learn to realize that.
Todd Huff: What we have today as far as it comes to. A higher standard of living and freedom in this country, for example, as 21st century Americans is the exception, not the norm. I mean, there has been poverty and death and oppression and slavery, and this stuff still exists today on planet Earth. I'm under no illusion here that it doesn't. People were murdered and oppressed and harmed and tortured by their own governments. That's happened throughout history.
Todd Huff: Human nature is flawed. The Bible calls it sin. It's an archery term, which means we missed the mark. We missed the mark. God had a target for us to hit. And we didn't hit it. In fact, in many cases, we weren't even shooting at the target. We were shooting 90 degrees off to the sides, or in some cases maybe 180 degrees with our backs to the target, firing another direction.
Todd Huff: Reminds me, a couple of weeks ago I was meeting my parents somewhere. We hadn't seen them in a. I don't know, a month or so. And it was a big area. It was a big area, and they were in a parking garage and they couldn't figure out where we were. And so we went to meet them. And I remember I was looking, it was big, and I poked my head. I couldn't completely go into this parking garage because the place where we were, there's security set up.
Todd Huff: And I would have had to go back through security. So I was kind of poking my head around. And looking, and I see my parents way off in the distance, walking the wrong direction. And I had my dad on the phone. I'm like, dad. Make a 180 degree turn where your back is facing now. Turn and make your face Face that direction and walk that way and you'll see me. And eventually they got down to us. And we were able to meet and get to dinner and all this sort of stuff.
Todd Huff: But the point is, that's how far off we are. That's how far off we are from the target. Sometimes. Sometimes 180 degrees off target. Humanity is flawed. The Bible calls it sin. And because of this, government power must be limited.
Todd Huff: You know, government is run by people. Is this a news flash to some people? It's amazing. I remember I had. I won't name who it was, but I'll just say someone in my extended family. How about that? Who he hates corporations. And listen, I know I'm not here to universally love corporations or in big corporations, right? I'm not talking about small businesses. I'm talking about big, massive corporations who, you know, in many instances, take advantage of people. Not always, but they certainly can. I'm under no illusion they're run by people.
Todd Huff: Right. They're run by people. Just like government is run by people. But it's amazing to me, this individual. This individual thought they were the worst people in the universe. When they were in corporate America. But I would say to him, You know, when these people are appointed to government roles, suddenly you got no problem. With it. Right. And this is often what happens. Even people like Obama would appoint people from corporate America to whatever ambassadorship or to head some. Acronym. Some multi letter agency.
Todd Huff: In the federal government, and suddenly, whatever that organization says, the FBI. The CIA, the fda, whatever, suddenly you trust it. But you don't see that it's the same person that's now running it. That you didn't trust at all when he was the CEO of Kellogg's. And I'm not picking. I'm just picking a random company. But you get the point, right? But you're right to be skeptical. Of any. Person. I would say there's some people that never see any good and refuse to see it. I think that that's too far.
Todd Huff: But we should certainly at least be prepared to understand that people are flawed. And that's why government power should be limited. Too many people, man. The communists. This is summarizes, perhaps. I don't want to say the entire reason. Although it's up there, it's very close to being the entire reason why their system, their worldview, collapses. But they believe if only the right people run it. It will work. Right. You'll hear them say this.
Todd Huff: In fact, I remember when I took that class. I've told you about it before. Class at butler university. I think it was my last semester. Senior year, 2000. Spring semester, 2000. I took a class called Is Capitalism Really Better? It was led by a professor. There were eight students, four females, four males. 300 level political science class at Butler University. And the entire semester was spent discussing whether or not the commies had it right or America had it right.
Todd Huff: This professor had spent some time living in the Soviet Union. And you could tell he was quite fond of, well, at least the concept of Soviet utopianism. And he would tell us. It's not that the idea is wrong. We just didn't find the benevolent dictator. In fact, that's why I'll give you a little bit of secret here behind the show. You'll hear me from time to time. Call myself the benevolent dictator behind the microphone.
Todd Huff: It is, of course, joking, and it's pointing out the flaws of a broken worldview, which is that of communism. But that's how they look at it. If only they had found someone besides Joseph Stalin. Or besides, take your pick, Mikhail Gorbachev didn't matter. They needed somebody else. If you elect better leaders. Your problems are solved if you elect different leaders. The system of Utopia will work.
Todd Huff: Now I will tell you. When I was a student at Butler, there was another. This is a different professor, by the way. Not the same one who taught the Soviet Communism, the capitalism class versus communism class. Another different professor. Again was a man. He had us write an opinion piece on the possibility of a utopia. And so it was an opinion piece, and so I shared my opinion. And I gave the reason for my opinion.
Todd Huff: And of course, my opinion is rooted firmly because I'm a Christian and I believe that the Bible is the inspired true word of God himself. I believe that what God says about our nature is true. And so we can never achieve a utopia this side of heaven because of our sin. And our falls, our flaws and so forth, which I've explained earlier in this particular podcast.
Todd Huff: But he wouldn't grade my paper. It's a true story. This was probably my sophomore year, I'm guessing. I'm thinking. And so he put on my paper, my draft. You would turn in. From what I remember, you would turn in a draft and he would read it, basically say, yeah, you're on the right path, or whatever. You need to change some things. He wouldn't grade my draft.
Todd Huff: So I had a meeting with him. And told him, hey, just like you trust Karl Marx and these other leftists, the Communist Manifesto and everything else, I trust the Bible. And candidly, if you're going to cite that, why can't I cite this? Mine, by the way, my source is withstood. All the scrutiny possible. Yours has crumbled under the slightest bit of scrutiny. Whatever. And I had to spend my entire. I basically wrote my paper explaining to him why I should be able to have my opinion.
Todd Huff: I remember I got a B minus. It upset me very much, but probably spent more time on that than any other student in the class because I wasn't going to not share my opinion. Anyway, the point is, that's what these people think. You can have a utopia. You can have a better society if you just elect the benevolent dictator. If you just elect better leaders, you'll have your problems solved. That, of course, is not living. In reality.
Todd Huff: Government is run by the same human beings that live in the rest of society. This is why. The founders didn't design our government, assuming the leaders would be angels. In fact, Madison warned us against this. If men were angels, government would not be necessary. It's what they believe. That's what they knew.
Todd Huff: Instead, they designed a system to restrain power because they understood human nature. That's what they understood. That's why they made it the way they made it. That's why the separation of powers matters so much. Because, my friends, if you give too much power to an individual, It will corrupt the individual.
Todd Huff: The old saying, power corrupts absolute power. Corrupts absolutely. Take it to the bank. It is baked into our DNA. It's exactly what I mean. It can be traced back to the Garden of Eden. My friends, it is in our nature, and we must build a system that. What I want to say that compliments that's aware of that lives in the same reality. As that broken, sinful human nature, more to say, of course, on this.
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Todd Huff: Okay, so when we get back from the break. We are going to talk about human nature. We're going to talk about the reality of human nature. We're going to talk about good intentions and the impact that those have or don't have on human nature. We're going to talk about how power changes incentives and how good intentions can still produce bad systems. That's the way we're heading. I've got to take a break. Quick time out, my friends. Back here in just a minute.
Todd Huff: Welcome back, my friends. Again. I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. I love talking about these things. I think you can pick that up. If you want to get all the information, the links, if you want the written summaries a little bit deeper, dives. All you have to do is sign up for the inner circle. It is free. You'll get it every day about 5:00.
Todd Huff: Although I noticed the other day with the time change. Something didn't get caught in the system, so it went out at 6:00. But regardless, my friends, you'll get it each weekday evening about that time. All you have to do to sign up, and it's totally free. Sign up for the inner circle is text the word truth. T r u t h truth. To 317-785-1030.
Todd Huff: Again, text the word truth to 317785. 1030. Okay. Now, I told you that we were going to talk about human nature next, so that's what we're going to do. Political systems, like it or not. Depend upon our understanding and assumptions about human nature.
Todd Huff: Our people naturally trustworthy with power. Do they require restraints? What do we need to know about their nature? What are the things that we are inclined to do as a species? What are our weaknesses? What are our temptations? That stuff shouldn't matter, right? If we're trying to develop a government that is designed or tries its best to put safeguards in to protect us from the worst parts of ourselves.
Todd Huff: Right. I mean, it stands to reason. It stands. It's why, my friends, when you have a business, you have multiple people that are overseeing the deposits. Balancing the accounts. It's why there's financial audits. To make sure that things are on the up and up.
Todd Huff: It's why you have to act reasonably. You can't be paranoid. But you also have to understand that if you leave people, if you leave people alone. Add to their own devices that there is an inclination to do things that we shouldn't do. And so, again, I see this through the biblical lens.
Todd Huff: Humans are created in the image of God. We are created with the capacity to be. Well, to be creative. Sorry, that sounds redundant, but, yeah, we are made. We are like God. And I'm using air quotes back here. We're made in his image. We're not gods, but we're like him. We're similar to him in nature, not an ability.
Todd Huff: We're not certainly not in our perfection. Certainly not omnipotent. We're not omnipresent, we're not eternal, but we have some of the same characteristics of God. For example. He's a creative being. We're a creative beings. Because he's made us like him, we're capable of being compassionate. We're capable of being good.
Todd Huff: But again, the Bible tells us there's no one good. No, not one. Because we're tarnished by the sin. All of us have fallen and turned from it. It doesn't mean that none of us have done any good. It means that we've all been corrupted because of our inclination to choose to do things that are not good, that are evil and sinful.
Todd Huff: So we're fallen. We've not attained the level of holiness, I guess you could say, that God intended us intended for us to reach. But he fully knew at the beginning that we were going to fall. This is not shocking to God. He can see. He holds time in his hands. He can see the beginning and the end. And so that's the reality of the situation.
Todd Huff: Certainly people can do good things, but we all choose to do bad things as well. And we've got to be aware of that. We have pride. We have selfish ambition, we have vain conceit. We're tempted to be powerful or tempted by power. I should say by our selfish desires, by our lust. This is just the truth.
Todd Huff: Now, that same human nature, and this is the point. That same human nature that exists in society, in you and in me also exists in our government. I don't know why there's a disconnect. I don't know. Some people refuse to believe. And I understand. Listen, the truth that I just laid out there. Saying that we all miss the mark.
Todd Huff: That's not comfortable on some level to admit. You have to admit. In fact, if you look at the Ten Commandments, and you realize that we've broken probably all the Ten Commandments when you factor in how Jesus, we all may not have literally murdered somebody. But the Bible says if you've hated someone in your heart, that you've committed murder.
Todd Huff: And so. Yikes. If you've looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery. Yikes. You start thinking of these things and you realize, man, the heart is depraved above, above all things, right? And the closer you are drawn to God or the closer that God draws near to you I think the more that you see your depravity and hopelessness.
Todd Huff: And so those same people, though. The same people. They're not different people. They're not a different species. They're not a different class of people. They want you to think that they are. The people who are elected leaders and politicians and so forth.
Todd Huff: I don't like to use the word leaders, but that's often what comes to mind. These are just elected officials. Leaders require people who follow them. Politicians who acquire power and force you to follow them or not leaders. If they were leaders, they wouldn't need to force you because you would do it on your own accord.
Todd Huff: But nonetheless, my friends, that same human nature that exists in us, that exists in society, exists in government. This is not complicated. And good intentions don't cancel out that human nature. Good intentions do not override that human nature.
Todd Huff: This is where we hear things like, oh, they mean well. They're trying to help people. They have good intentions. You know the saying. Right. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Todd Huff: Good intentions doesn't make it good. In fact, a good intention even if it is a good intention today. It doesn't mean it will be a good intention tomorrow. I think of David when he goes up onto the roof of his palace. And there's a bazillion ways of looking at this. I don't know if he knew that there would be someone like Bathsheba bathing below or not, but it's conceivable to me that he was just out for an evening stroll.
Todd Huff: Not having any intention, just maybe just to clear his mind. And take a look at the city. I don't know. And then he looks down and sees Bathsheba and makes a series of evil choices. He didn't have intentions to do that, but in the blink of an eye. The beat of the heart, the snap of the finger. He can choose. We all can choose. Even if our intentions are good up until that point.
Todd Huff: To flip the switch. And just change it on a dime, as they say. So political debate unfortunately often is it's reduced. That's the word I want to use. It's reduced to a debate about motives. And so there'll be disagreement about whether a certain policy or laws cruel or selfish or whatever.
Todd Huff: But in reality, we should be looking at what works. What works in the real world. Right, so, for example. You can't just say we're gonna. We're gonna make a law that says if you're not in a legal alien, you can't vote and assume that nobody who's in a legal alien isn't gonna try to vote. That's stupid. Why would we think that?
Todd Huff: Because human nature is exactly what I told you it is. If you have a driver's license, if you don't think you're gonna get caught. If the system's right there and it's easy pickings and you wanna have a say in who's running the show in this country, why would you not vote? Especially when half of the Democrat Party doesn't care if you do or not.
Todd Huff: They're making it easier and easier for you to do so. And I'm just picking that. You can pick any issue, even a conservative issue. And you can say the intentions aren't what matter. What matters is the results. What matters are the results.
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Todd Huff (Sponsor): They specialize in biblically responsible investing. That means they screen out companies that don't align our values so that we are not funding things that go completely against what we believe in. They do the heavy lifting. All we have to do is complete the assessment.
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Todd Huff (Sponsor): It doesn't take long. They'll give you the information, and you can see to what degree your investments line up with your value.
Todd Huff: So timeout for me, my friends. Quick time out. Be back here in just a minute.
Todd Huff: Now you know one of the biggest challenges as conservatives is finding ways to ensure our values align with the way that we live our lives. And that includes the way that we invest our money. That's why I love what the team at 4:8 Financial is doing. They specialize in biblically responsible investing. That means they screen out companies that don't align our values so that we are not funding things that go completely against what we believe in. They do the heavy lifting. All we have to do is complete the assessment. They will help align our investments with our purpose, with our goals, and to make sure that they are aligned with what we believe.
Todd Huff: So you can head on over to 48Financial.com Todd to take a quick and easy assessment. 48Financial.com Todd. That's where you take that assessment? It doesn't take long. They'll give you the information, and you can see to what degree your investments line up with your value. So timeout for me, my friends. Quick time out. Be back here in just a minute.
Todd Huff: All right, my friends, final segment. Final segment of the day. I know it is covering a lot here, but I think it's important stuff, and I appreciate you hanging in there with us. And exploring these things with us, helping to develop a framework by which we can view these issues. And help explain these things to other people. If you want the full report, I guess, and the articles and the written summary that you can share and reference and all that kind of stuff, just text the word TRUTH to 317785, 1030. Again, text the word truth 317-785-1030.
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Todd Huff: All right. So I want to get through as much of this here as I can today. We talked about intentions. In politics, intentions are treated as proof that the policy should exist. Wow. It's nice. It shows that we care. How about we determine it based upon whether or not it works? Right? We live in a fallen world. We went through all this. Living a fallen world. It doesn't matter what our intentions are. It matters what we're actually doing by instituting the policies and the decisions that we're creating as the law or just decisions of our society and government.
Todd Huff: And so we need to shift the conversation from intentions to the actual outcomes. Motives, my friends, don't eliminate human nature. And let me say this. I know this is where maybe we can get better sometimes at communicating. Because to you and I, we hear some of these policies and we roll our eyes and we think, what is wrong with these people? There's no way in a million years that that's going to work.
Todd Huff: For example, I think about the reparations. There we go. Reparations. And I see all the fallout for what could potentially happen in California. It's driving people out of the state, all this sort of stuff. And it's easy to say that's foolish. What do you idiots thinking? And that's not helpful though. Because to a lot of people, the intention is good. You're trying to right the wrongs of slavery. Or civil rights, treating blacks differently and not as equal people during the civil rights, prior to the civil rights movement and so forth.
Todd Huff: And again, some of us might say, look, that has nothing to do with me. I get all that. But some people say, well, the motive is there to try to make something right. But it doesn't eliminate human nature. It doesn't eliminate that this has to work in the real world, that people will always manipulate the system. You got to account for that.
Todd Huff: You also have to account for the people who are trying to do things that look good to the superficial out there so that they can win your vote, get your donation, get you to pick up the phone and call people for them. That's what happens. That's the reality. And power changes incentives.
Todd Huff: So even the elected politician. A lot of people begin their career in quote unquote public service with sincere motives. But they get in there and they see how it works. I shared recently that there's a lawsuit of current and former members of Congress who are suing for back pay because Congress didn't supposedly that's the allegation here follow the law and give members of Congress cost of living adjustment raises dating back to 1992.
Todd Huff: And so do you think that's what these people thought when they were running for office, that they're going to go work the system? I mean, maybe in some instances, but too many times I've seen conservatives go with, I think, good intentions and they get there. And they realize human nature. It's easier to go along and get along than it is to stand up for principles.
Todd Huff: And then you wonder, why is this person? What happened to this person? They were such a promising candidate. It's easier just to lie low and not get on the radar and have all this hate directed at us. We have to understand that that's human nature. There's human nature for ambition. You get there, and if you don't toe the line of leadership, you're going to lose your seniority or you're not going to get a seat on a committee that you want.
Todd Huff: There's ego. People desire to be recognized. They desire to have control. And not only that, but authority can change perspective. Leaders become insulated sometimes from the results of their decisions. They're surrounded by advisors and supporters that are saying one thing when in reality the rest of America is saying something much different.
Todd Huff: Holding office does not remove you from having human nature. It doesn't purify you from that.Human nature is a big part of this. The left doesn't understand it. And accept it. I've got to go though. SDG.
