The Former President's Policies Constitute a Risk to Civilization.
The internal and external policies – ranging from the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest incursions and threats – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
These actions jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.
The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Without this, we risk being permanently immersed in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.
This concept lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the heart of the postwar international order supported by the America, built on international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the influential have enough integrity to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to turmoil, upheaval, and hostilities.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are weaker, the framework of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The resources of certain tycoons is staggering. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in human history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in recent memory.
Put it all together and you see the threat.
A clear connection connects previous breaches of norms to current provocations. These were founded upon the arrogance of invincibility.
You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.
Yet, raw power does not make right. It produces instability, revolution, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to check the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.
This blatant contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.
