The Former President's Actions Pose a Threat to Civilized Society.
The internal and external strategies – ranging from the attempted coup in the past to current actions and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
They threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
The guiding principle of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Without this, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest wins.
This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the postwar international order championed by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it requires that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever entities that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are weaker, the framework of our shared norms unravels. Should such behavior are not contained, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to exploit the disadvantaged because they feel untouchable.
The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants extends over numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is poised to consolidate wealth and power even more. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and a pliant judicial body, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked entity of the state in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
A clear connection links earlier lawless actions to current menaces. Both were founded upon the arrogance of omnipotence.
One observes much the same in international affairs: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.
Yet, strength without restraint does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt America and the global community – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for years to come.
