The Former President's Policies Constitute a Danger to Civilized Society.
The domestic and foreign initiatives – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current actions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international law. The implications are broader.
They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.
This ideal lies at the center of America’s founding documents. This is also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations supported by the US, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their authority. Upholding it requires that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It makes for instability, disruption, and hostilities.
Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are not, the structure of society unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a global community marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.
The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Supported by political allies and an accommodating supreme court, the executive office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of the state in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
An unbroken thread links previous transgressions to ongoing threats. These were founded upon the arrogance of invincibility.
You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
But, unfettered might does not establish right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
Such lawlessness will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.
