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The internal and external strategies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest incursions and warnings – weaken not only domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.

They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.

A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.

This concept is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the heart of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, emphasizing collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their authority. Upholding it demands that the influential have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Absolute power does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, chaos, and conflict.

Every time entities that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are not, the structure of society weakens. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.

Today, we live in a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to exploit the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants spans numerous countries. AI is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the leading countries is unmatched in the annals of time.

Enabled by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the presidency has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked agent of the state in the modern era.

Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.

A direct line links earlier lawless actions to current threats. Each were founded upon the hubris of omnipotence.

One observes much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

However, raw power does not establish right. It produces fragility, upheaval, and armed conflict.

The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to constrain the influential also shield them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will plague international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.