Trump's Actions Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
The national and international policies – from the effort to overturn the election in the past to recent incursions and statements – undermine both domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.
The moral purpose of civilized society is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Without this, we risk being locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest could survive.
This concept lies at the center of America’s founding documents. This is also the heart of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.
But, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the powerful have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don't.
Absolute power does not equal right. It results in turmoil, upheaval, and war.
Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are weaker, the structure of civilization frays. If these actions are not contained, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to exploit the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The fortunes of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to consolidate wealth and power further. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in recorded history.
Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant high court, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.
A clear connection links previous transgressions to present-day threats. These were based on the overconfidence of absolute power.
You see parallel dynamics in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.
However, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.
History shows that rules and conventions to check the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
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.
