Trump's Policies Constitute a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His domestic and foreign strategies – including the attempted coup previously to latest moves and threats – undermine not only national and global jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
These actions endanger the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
The guiding principle of a functioning society is to stop the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.
This concept lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the heart of the global system established after WWII championed by the America, emphasizing multilateralism, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a delicate principle, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the public demand responsibility when they fail.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It leads to instability, disruption, and war.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are not, the fabric of our shared norms frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
We now inhabit a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This invites the elite to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The resources of a small group of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants spans a vast portion of the world. AI is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.
Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in the modern era.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the threat.
A direct line ties earlier transgressions to present-day threats. These were founded upon the hubris of invincibility.
You see much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
But, strength without restraint does not create right. It produces uncertainty, upended order, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to constrain the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches eventually bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.
Such contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for a long time.
