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His national and international policies – including the challenge to the democratic process previously to current actions and statements – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. But that’s not all.

These actions threaten the very concept of a civilized world.

The moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the dominant from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Without this, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest prevails.

This principle is central of America’s founding documents. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order championed by the America, emphasizing multilateralism, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

But, it is a vulnerable construct, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.

Unchecked strength is not right. It leads to uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.

Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the framework of society weakens. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This invites the powerful to exploit the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as untouchable.

The wealth of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power even more. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.

Empowered by political allies and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in the modern era.

Consider this confluence and you see the danger.

An unbroken thread connects previous breaches of norms to current provocations. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of invincibility.

You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

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

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.

Such contempt for legal order will plague America and the global community – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.