His national and international policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to latest incursions and threats – erode not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.
They endanger the core idea of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to prevent the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Failing that, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.
This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the US, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
However, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Preserving it requires that the influential have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Unchecked strength does not make right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and war.
Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are less so, the fabric of society frays. If such aggression are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.
Our current reality is a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This invites the powerful to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The fortunes of a small group of tycoons is staggering. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers much of the globe. AI is could further concentrate resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.
Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating high court, the presidency has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in history.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the threat.
A clear connection ties earlier breaches of norms to present-day menaces. Both were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.
There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, raw power does not make right. It makes for instability, revolution, and war.
History shows that frameworks designed to check the influential also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches eventually bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten global conflict.
This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for years to come.
