“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” So wrote James Madison in Federalist 51, possibly the most famous paper defending the proposed Constitution .

He was far from alone. Our framers held a healthy skepticism about human nature. They knew that selfishness, pride, greed, and a host of other vices could control human will and drive actions. These actions then led to men harming each other, infringing on their rights to life, liberty , and property.

To combat these unangelic tendencies, our framers wished officeholders to possess two qualities: wisdom and virtue. By wisdom, they meant the perceptiveness both to know the good and how to achieve it in the real world. By virtue, these statesmen had in mind the moral character to seek the common good and justice for all. Through both, they would counter the elements of society that lacked virtue and committed injustices as a result.

Yet a developing scandal shows what happens when a government lacking wisdom encounters persons lacking virtue. Recent reports have continued to expose the scale of corruption that occurred in government programs dispersing money during the pandemic. Simply put: The government got tricked over and over. As much as $135 billion in fraud may have occurred in the unemployment insurance program, which would be 15% of the total amount given out during that time. Similarly, relief afforded to small businesses totaling $1.2 trillion may have had as high as $200 billion in fraudulent claims.

Here, the government held generally good intentions. It desired to help people and businesses suffering from the state shutdowns in response to COVID-19. The relief sought to keep people from losing homes and businesses from shutting down.

However, they lacked the wisdom to administer the programs with the shrewdness needed when so much money was involved. Men, not angels, received this government money. And many of those men (and women) lied to gain the money. In the end, it was theft — not just stealing from the government but from taxpayers. What the framers created the government to curb, in this case, it instead enabled, even cultivated.

A second government scandal switches out the problem. That would be the investigations into the doings of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. It is near impossible to conclude that Hunter Biden has not received special treatment from government officials, both in the investigations of his possible illegal conduct and even in the judicial proceedings that almost led to a privileged plea bargain. It even seems like the executive branch has pressured investigators to game the outcome of the inquiries.

In other words, this scandal reveals our government’s lack of virtue in addition to its lack of wisdom again. Madison, though hoping for better, certainly knew this could happen. After mentioning that government existed to stop unangelic men, he added, “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." As humans were the problem that led to creating government, they are the source of the problem of government corruption itself.

We need to rediscover Madison's and the other framers’ sober view of human nature, applied both to the people and their government. We need a government with the wisdom to guard the people’s money from those who would raid the public treasury for illegal, selfish gain. We need a government virtuous enough to follow the rule of law, irrespective of who faces the consequences of breaking the laws.

Obtaining that kind of government does not begin with public officials. Instead, it must begin with “We, the People.” Though we aren’t angels, we are better, much better, than the fraudsters who bilked the pandemic programs. We must, through ballots and voices, demand more wisdom and virtue from our government in response to wrongdoing. We may not earn a halo for doing so. But we may get our government to act a little smarter and a little more just.

Adam Carrington is an assistant professor of politics at Hillsdale College.