The Former President's Actions Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His domestic and foreign initiatives – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to current actions and warnings – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
These actions endanger the very concept of what we mean by.
The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the weaker. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.
This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, which stresses collective action, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a delicate ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public demand responsibility if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It leads to uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.
Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are weaker, the fabric of society frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they feel above the law.
The wealth of a handful of billionaires is staggering. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power further. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and a sympathetic high court, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of government in history.
Consider this confluence and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread links previous lawless actions to ongoing menaces. Each were based on the hubris of absolute power.
There is much the same in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
However, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters fragility, revolution, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to check the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches ultimately bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.
Such contempt for legal order will plague America and the global community – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.
