Trump's Approach Present a Threat to Our Social Fabric.

The domestic and foreign policies – including the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current incursions and threats – weaken not only domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

A guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a brutish war where survival of the strongest wins.

This principle lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations supported by the US, built on collective action, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.

But, it is a delicate ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.

Unchecked strength is not right. It makes for instability, disruption, and hostilities.

Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are weaker, the structure of society unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in modern history. This encourages the privileged to exploit the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.

The wealth of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers much of the globe. AI is poised to consolidate resources and influence even more. The offensive capability of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.

Enabled by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of the state in the modern era.

Put it all together and you see the threat.

A direct line links previous transgressions to ongoing menaces. Each were founded upon the arrogance of absolute power.

One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.

Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and armed conflict.

History shows that rules and conventions to check the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.

Such disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.