The Former President's Approach Pose a Danger to Our Social Fabric.
The internal and external strategies – from the effort to overturn the election previously to current incursions and warnings – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
A guiding principle of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.
This ideal lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the America, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.
But, it is a delicate construct, easily violated by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it requires that the powerful have enough integrity to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Unchecked strength does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, upheaval, and conflict.
Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the framework of society unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can plunge into chaos and war. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the powerful to take advantage of the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.
The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over much of the globe. AI is likely to centralize wealth and power to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unprecedented in human history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and a pliant high court, the presidency has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in history.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the threat.
A direct line connects previous breaches of norms to current menaces. These were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.
You see parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It produces uncertainty, revolution, and war.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
This kind of lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.
