Trump's Approach Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
The domestic and foreign strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to latest incursions and threats – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
These actions jeopardize the very concept of a civilized world.
The moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Failing that, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.
This ideal is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who seek to abuse their power. Maintaining it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the public demand responsibility when they fail.
Unfettered might does not make right. It makes for turmoil, disruption, and war.
Each instance entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are less so, the framework of society weakens. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The fortunes of a small group of billionaires is staggering. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to centralize wealth and power further. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.
Enabled by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the highest office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of government in the modern era.
Put it all together and you see the threat.
An unbroken thread connects earlier lawless actions to current threats. These were premised on the overconfidence of invincibility.
There is parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
However, strength without restraint does not make right. It makes for instability, revolution, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.
This kind of disregard for rules will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.
