The Former President's Policies Constitute a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His internal and external strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current moves and threats – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
They endanger the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.
A ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Without this, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where survival of the strongest could survive.
This ideal lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order championed by the US, built on collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their influence. Preserving it necessitates that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It leads to turmoil, disruption, and war.
Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are not, the framework of society weakens. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can plunge into chaos and war. It has happened before.
Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of omnipotent.
The fortunes of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The reach of global industrial giants covers much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is likely to consolidate economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of government in recent memory.
Put it all together and you see the threat.
A clear connection links past breaches of norms to ongoing provocations. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.
One observes a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It produces instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the powerful also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches eventually bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.
This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.
