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His domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process previously to current moves and threats – undermine not only national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions jeopardize the very concept of a civilized world.

A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a brutish war where only the fittest prevails.

This principle is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, built on multilateralism, democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law.

But, it is a delicate construct, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It leads to uncertainty, upheaval, and war.

Each instance entities that are advantaged target and use those that are weaker, the structure of society frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in modern history. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The wealth of certain billionaires is staggering. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is likely to consolidate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of government in the modern era.

Combine these factors and you perceive the looming crisis.

A direct line ties past transgressions to present-day menaces. Each were based on the arrogance of invincibility.

There is much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

But, strength without restraint does not make right. It produces uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to limit the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten global conflict.

Such lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.