The Former President's Policies Present a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
The national and international initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent incursions and warnings – erode both national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
They endanger the core idea of civilization itself.
The guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Failing that, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a state of nature where survival of the strongest prevails.
This concept is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, built on multilateralism, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
However, it is a fragile ideal, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining it demands that the influential have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Absolute power is not right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.
Each instance entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are not, the fabric of society weakens. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The resources of certain billionaires is difficult to fathom. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate wealth and power even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in human history.
Supported by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in the modern era.
Put it all together and you grasp the threat.
A direct line ties past transgressions to present-day threats. Both were premised on the arrogance of omnipotence.
There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.
But, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters fragility, upended order, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.
This kind of lawlessness will plague America and the global community – and indeed civilization – for a long time.
