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His internal and external strategies – from the effort to overturn the election in the past to latest actions and threats – undermine both national and global legal frameworks. But that’s not all.

They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

A guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we would be locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest wins.

This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the heart of the postwar international order championed by the US, emphasizing multilateralism, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.

However, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their power. Maintaining it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and conflict.

Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are not, the framework of our shared norms frays. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a global community marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The resources of a handful of tycoons is staggering. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers a vast portion of the world. AI is likely to consolidate resources and influence even more. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in the annals of time.

Enabled by a compliant faction and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in history.

Combine these factors and you see the threat.

An unbroken thread connects past breaches of norms to current menaces. Each were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.

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

But, raw power does not create right. It fosters fragility, revolution, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.

This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.