Trump's Approach Pose a Danger to Civilized Society.
His internal and external initiatives – including the effort to overturn the election in the past to latest incursions and warnings – erode not only domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.
They threaten the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Failing that, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.
This ideal is central of America’s founding documents. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII advocated by the America, which stresses collective action, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their authority. Upholding it demands that the influential have enough integrity to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to instability, chaos, and conflict.
Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of our shared norms frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The fortunes of a small group of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The influence of global industrial giants spans numerous countries. Advanced technology is could further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.
Enabled by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of the state in history.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
A direct line ties earlier breaches of norms to ongoing threats. Each were premised on the arrogance of invincibility.
One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.
This kind of contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for years to come.
