The Former President's Approach Constitute a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
The domestic and foreign initiatives – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent moves and warnings – erode not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions jeopardize the very concept of a civilized world.
A moral purpose of a functioning society is to prevent the dominant from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Failing that, we would be locked in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.
This concept lies at the center of America’s founding documents. This is also the heart of the postwar international order championed by the US, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their influence. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Absolute power does not make right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and hostilities.
Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are not, the framework of our shared norms unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of untouchable.
The wealth of a small group of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. AI is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the leading countries is unmatched in the annals of time.
Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant high court, the presidency has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked entity of state power in history.
Put it all together and you grasp the threat.
An unbroken thread ties earlier lawless actions to present-day menaces. These were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.
You see much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
However, strength without restraint does not establish right. It produces uncertainty, upended order, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to check the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.
