America’s founders established a remarkable system of checks and balances, designed to restrain the excesses of both monarchy and mobs. But how well is that system working today—in this age of powerful lobbies and corporate-controlled journalism? This provocative one-hour documentary examines a number of forces that threaten to upset that delicate balance: the influence of big money on our government and media, America’s soaring national debt, the war in Iraq and the tension between national security and our tradition of civil liberties.