Trump's Policies Constitute a Danger to Our Social Fabric.
His internal and external strategies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to current moves and threats – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They endanger the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to stop the dominant from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we would be locked in a brutish war where only the fittest could survive.
This ideal is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the America, built on collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their influence. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility should they falter.
Absolute power does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the structure of civilization frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can descend into instability and violence. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The fortunes of certain tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants spans much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the world's largest nations is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in the modern era.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread links past transgressions to present-day provocations. Each were based on the hubris of absolute power.
There is a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
But, unfettered might does not create right. It produces uncertainty, upheaval, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to constrain the influential also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches ultimately lead to their downfall – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.