The Former President's Approach Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
The internal and external strategies – from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest incursions and threats – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
They threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
A moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the less powerful. Without this, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.
This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, built on international cooperation, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
But, it is a vulnerable ideal, often broken by those who choose to misuse their authority. Upholding it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.
Unfettered might does not make right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and war.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are not, the structure of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into chaos and war. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.
The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could centralize economic and political clout even more. The destructive power of the leading countries is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of government in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you perceive the looming crisis.
A clear connection ties earlier transgressions to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.
One observes a similar pattern in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
However, unfettered might does not create right. It produces instability, upended order, and bloodshed.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches ultimately lead to their downfall – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague America and the global community – and indeed civilization – for years to come.
