Donald Trump's Actions Present a Danger to Our Social Fabric.

His domestic and foreign initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election in the past to current incursions and statements – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.

The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a state of nature where might makes right wins.

This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the US, built on collective action, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a delicate principle, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it requires that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that society demand responsibility if they don't.

Unfettered might does not equal right. It leads to turmoil, disruption, and conflict.

Each instance entities that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are not, the structure of civilization unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The fortunes of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants extends over numerous countries. AI is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in recorded history.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a pliant 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 perceive the looming crisis.

A direct line ties past breaches of norms to ongoing menaces. These were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

But, unfettered might does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to check the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.