Trump's Approach Present a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
His domestic and foreign strategies – including the effort to overturn the election previously to latest actions and statements – undermine not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
These actions jeopardize the very concept of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Failing that, we could find ourselves locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest wins.
This ideal is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the heart of the global system established after WWII advocated by the US, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a fragile construct, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Maintaining it necessitates that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.
Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are weaker, the structure of civilization unravels. If these actions are left unchecked, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a global community grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.
The fortunes of a small group of billionaires is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to consolidate economic and political clout further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and a pliant judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in recent memory.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread links past transgressions to ongoing threats. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of invincibility.
One observes a similar pattern in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, unfettered might does not create right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and war.
History shows that laws and norms to check the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
This blatant disregard for rules will plague America and the global community – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.
