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His internal and external strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current moves and statements – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to prevent the dominant from preying upon and using the weaker. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where might makes right could survive.

This concept is embedded of America’s founding documents. This is also the heart of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.

But, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it requires that the those in charge have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and hostilities.

Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are weaker, the structure of civilization frays. If these actions are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the major powers is without parallel in the annals of time.

Supported by political allies and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of government in the modern era.

Put it all together and you perceive the threat.

A direct line ties earlier transgressions to ongoing menaces. These were based on the arrogance of invincibility.

You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.

However, unfettered might does not establish right. It produces uncertainty, upended order, and war.

History shows that frameworks designed to check the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for increased control and resources ultimately bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.